Russia: German chlorine, UK smoke bombs found in Syria's Ghouta

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

Russia says Syrian government forces have found containers filled with toxic chlorine gas from Germany and smoke grenades manufactured in Britain in Syria's recently-liberated Eastern Ghouta region.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that the seizure of the Western-made chemicals and weapons undermined "the faith in humaneness” of some countries’ leadership.

“In the liberated areas of Eastern Ghouta, Syrian government troops have found containers with chlorine – the most horrible kind of chemical weapons – from Germany, and also smoke grenades produced ... in the city of Salisbury, the UK,” she said.

Zakharova also referred to the alleged chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb town of Douma on April 7, which Western states blamed on the Damascus government.

She stressed that the images and videos of the incident, which had been circulated on social media, were "100-percent fake."

One week after the suspected Douma gas attack, the US, Britain and France launched a coordinated missile attack against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.

Syrian air defenses, however, shot down a significant number of the more than 100 missiles fired at the country in violation of international law and the UN Charter.

Elsewhere in her remarks, the Russian spokeswoman said that the tripartite strikes on Syria were meant to allow terrorists to replenish their ranks.

"Our assumptions have been confirmed, the actual goal of the three Western countries was to let the extremists catch their breath, restore their ranks and prolong the bloodshed on Syrian soil thus hindering the political settlement process," she pointed out.

Child witness casts doubt on alleged chemical attack

In a relevant development on Thursday, Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said that Moscow would screen at the world body an interview with a Syrian child who says he was made to pose as a victim of chemical weapons.

Hassan Diab (L), the Syrian boy featured in the video of the Douma incident, and his father Omar, speak to Russian reporters.

"We are distributing it to member countries (of the UN Security Council) and journalists, and at the next meeting of the Security Council we will find a way to screen it," he said.

Omar Diab, the father of the 11-year-old Syrian boy called Hassan, said he is ready to go to international organizations to testify that no chemical attack took place in Douma.

"There were no signs of chemical damage to my son; he was frightened but healthy. I and my family are ready to testify in any place in the world, including in Geneva, New York, that no chemical weapons were used," he told reporters.