US ‘Highly Skeptical’ Syrian Rebels Used Chemical Weapons

Source : RIA Novosti

WASHINGTON, May 6 (RIA Novosti) – US officials are “highly skeptical” of claims that Syrian rebels had deployed chemical weapons in their war with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday.

“We find it highly likely that any chemical weapon use that has taken place in Syria was done by the Assad regime. And that remains our position,” Carney said.

The comments followed an interview that Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN commission to monitor and investigate reported human rights abuses in Syria, gave to a Swiss-Italian TV network in which she said the commission had received testimony from victims and doctors about the alleged use of the deadly nerve gas sarin by rebel forces.

“According to the testimonies that we have collected, the rebels have used chemical weapons, by using sarin gas," Del Ponte told Radiotelevisione svizzera.

The Syrian government and rebel forces have traded accusations of using chemical weapons in recent weeks.

Last month, the White House said in a letter to lawmakers that intelligence gathered by the United States, with the help of opposition forces in Syria, shows the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale.

Both Carney and US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Monday that the United States still believes that forces loyal to the Assad government were behind the purported chemical weapons attack.

“Any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime,” Ventrell told a news briefing.

A senior State Department official said Monday that US officials “have no information” suggesting the Syrian rebels “have either the capability or the intent to deploy or use such weapons.”

The official added that Del Ponte’s independent commission is separate from the team of experts assembled by the UN to investigate the purported use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Carney on Monday declined to comment directly on the Israeli airstrikes on targets inside Syria over the weekend, which a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said targeted a shipment of Iranian-made Fateh-110 guided missiles believed to be on their way to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, the Associated Press reported.

Carney said, however, that Israel “certainly has the right to be concerned about the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, and that has been a concern of Israel’s for a long time.”

According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, the Israeli attack targeted a research facility near the capital Damascus.

Al-Manar Website Uncovers Internal Document for Al-Nusra Front

Source : Al-Manar

Al-Manar Website Uncovers an Internal Document for Al-Nusra Front:

How Turkey Recruits Fighters in Syria

The document is a ten page application form distributed by the Turkish authorities on Syrians inside Syria. Based on the information mentioned in the application, the individual is enlisted either in the ranks of a certain phalanx that fights in Syria, as an intelligence agent, or as a recruit for the intelligence agents that work inside Syria.

The source of this document is an injured Syrian who was in the ranks of the militants. His family took him to Europe for treatment after he was injured in his spinal cord, so he passed on this document to us to publish it and comment on its articles and points.

The injured Syrian said the Turkish authorities established a “Center for Civil Society and Democracy in Syria” as a civil facade to Al-Nusra Front and the militants its trains and arms in its lands before it sends them to Syria.

Turkey also relies on these forms to specify the individuals that it could take to military training camps in Turkey, as well as those who could form military and security cells inside Syria.

He added that “all the supervisors of this center are from the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and they personally lead Al-Nusra Front.”

The injured Syrian further tells us that one person could fill more than one form, as he could fill forms for people he knows, or he could work on finding people that would fill their personal forms.

Moreover, Turkey presents for each individual, who could find 60 people to fill forms in Syria, a large sum of money.

The injured Syrian said that this form was put by the Turks and they are the ones who supervise the training program, while Qatar and Saudi Arabia fund the civil society center, in addition to cash money that come from France, America, and Germany.

The application form is consisted of 28 articles, and the following points are noticed in it:

1- Article number seven is related to military information and data from the Syrian Arab Army, and it is consisted of 13 sections.

2- Articles between nine and 23 are questions and information about the Syrian society.

3- Articles between 23 and 27 are security and intelligence questions.

4- Article 28 includes questions about the sectarian structure in each applicant’s region.

13 Syrian immigrants rescued in boat accident off Turkish coast

Source : Xinhua

ANKARA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 illegal Syrian immigrants were rescued Monday after their boat hit rocks off Turkey's coast of the Aegean Sea, local newspaper Today's Zaman reported.

Acting on a tip-off that a boat carrying illegal Syrian immigrants was heading for the Greek island of Rhodes, a team of the Turkey's Coast Guard began to follow the vessel.

The boat speeded up after the Syrians onboard found they were pursued, but it hit rocks and started to sink, according to the report, and the coast guards rescued the immigrants, including three children.

The Syrians were taken to local police station, waiting for being deported, said the report.

Saudi Intelligence Main Publisher of Nusra Front

Source : http://www.almanar.com

Saudi General Intelligence is the main publisher of al-Qaeda linked extremist group in Syria, al-Nusra Front, a report said.

The Itelligence Online Newsletter in Paris which receives information from foreign intelligence sources as saying that the Saudi intelligence, led by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Sultan took advantage of its communication with armed groups in Iraq to help making al-Nusra front.

"Thanks to funding from the General Intelligence Department and support from the Saudi Intelligence in Lebanon, al-Nusra was able to swiftly arm its forces, and make the Syrian regime suffer painful blows through its expertise in Iraqi bombings,” the Intelligence Online report noted.

The report confirms what some websites have said days earlier, concerning leaked Saudi confidential documents which said that the Saudi interior ministry had sent a military official who is in charge of supporting Syria insurgents with money and weapons.