Syria: Toxic substances found in opposition forces stronghold - Syrian govt.

Syrian chemical weapons specialists have recovered 20-tonne containers of toxic substances from areas previously controlled by militants, said Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Damascus on Saturday. SOT, Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister (Arabic): “There were containers weighing more than 20 tonnes at the storehouses of terrorists near Az-Zahiriyah and Al-Khafsah in the province of Hama. They contained 50 units of ammunition stuffed with chemicals. In Tal Adleh, 24 tonnes of poisonous chemicals, presumably chlorine, were found. All the information on the above substances that we sent to the OPCW [Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons] and the RMC was not studied, but was put on hold, since they [the OPCW and SMR] wanted to establish in any case that it was the ATS that used this chemical weapon. In the warehouse in Muadhamiya north and east, 30 km from Damascus, 240 mm and 160 mm ammunition and plastic containers with organic phosphorus were found. But thes