Syria
Here's a recap what happened in Syria tonight. But first:
All things going well, tomorrow evening Al Jazeera English will be rolling out a new, much-improved liveblogging system. The url will change, but we'll put a note up on the old feed before telling everyone where to go the switch-over. With any luck I'll be at the helm.
Russia began a campaign of opposition to the UN report on the August 21 chemical weapons attack in Damascus. After talks with Bashar al-Assad, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said that the report published this week was "distorted and one-sided".
He later stated that UN inspectors had not paid proper attention to evidence presented by the regime. Ryabkov's boss, Sergey Lavrov, said the Syrian evidence would be presented to the United Nations. You can read our story here.
Human Rights Watch used data in the the UN report to show that at least two of the missiles used on August 21 originated from a regime military base.
Fighters linked to al-Qaeda have reportedly overrun a Syrian town near the border with Turkey after fighting broke out with units of the anti-government Free Syrian Army, opposition activists say. You can read our story here. Activists in nearby Aleppo called for help from other rebel groups in the area.
Many thanks for your time tonight.
Syria
Activists in Aleppo have called on the moderate Liwa al-Tawhid to help retake the town of Azaz from the ISIS. You can read the Arabic Facebook post from the activists linked in the attached tweet from Syrian journalistHassan Hassan. The google translation isn't great but the message is in there.
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The opposition-aligned Aleppo Media Centre is updating its internet feeds on the fighting around Azaz. It also reports that one of its activisits was killed in the battle.
Syria
The English language RT, formerly Russia Today, has cited a blog post by the prominent blogger, @Brown_Moses, saying that he has provided video evidence that shows rebels were responsible for the August 21 attack. Except, @Brown_Moses did not say the videos were credible.
Here's the video report, and here's @Brown_Moses' reply, as posted on his blog:
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More on the Russia's opposition to the UN report and its methods. AFP reports:
Russia on Wednesday accused UN inspectors studying last month's chemical attack in Syria of ignoring "very factual" evidence provided by the Damascus regime, as Moscow and Washington continued to trade accusations over who was to blame for the attack.Evidence related to the deadly August 21 incident "was given to Mr [Ake] Sellstrom who headed the group of UN inspectors," Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said after talks with Syria's leadership in Damascus. "We are upset that it did not receive adequate attention in the report," he said in remarks aired on Russian television.
The world has yet to see what the Russians have in evidence, however, a Human Rights Watch spokesman told Al Jazeera that it included a statement from a nun who had studied videos of the attack to determine that far to many children were reported dead for them to be credible.
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Reuters continues:
Activist Abu Louay al-Halabi said the fighting broke out after the Storm of the North Brigade, a Free Syrian Army unit, resisted attempts by the Islamic State to abduct a German doctor working as a volunteer at a private hospital Azaz.
"By taking Izzaz, the Islamic State is a step closer to controlling the crossing [to Turkey]. Its objective seems to be taking over the whole countryside north of Aleppo," he said.
Here's a map of the area, as you can see Azaz is very close to the border with Turkey.
Syria
Conflicting account on the ISIS-FSA battle, from Reuters, stating that ISIS had taken over the town:
A rebel group affiliated with al-Qaeda overran a Syrian town near the border with Turkey on Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Free Syrian Army, opposition activists said.Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stormed the town of Izzaz, 5km from the Syrian-Turkish border and killed at least five FSA members, they said, adding 100 people were arrested.
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Al Jazeera reporters say that units of the Free Syrian Army have surrounded fighters from the al-Qaeda linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Izzaz district of Aleppo. We'll have more when it arrives.
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He's our latest video report on the diplomatic manouevres over Syria. Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports from Moscow.
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The UN has responded to Russian claims that its report on the August 21 attack in Damascus was "one-sided" and "biased".
Reuters reports:
The United Nations said its conclusion that rockets loaded with sarin gas were used should not be questioned. "The findings in that report are indisputable," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. "They speak for themselves and this was a thoroughly objective report on that specific incident."
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From AFP:
The German government on Wednesday defended granting permits around a decade ago for exports to Syria of chemicals that can be used to make deadly sarin gas.
The economy ministry said the export licences were granted between 2002 and 2006 for shipments totalling more than 100 tonnes of chemicals for both military and civilian use.
They received the green light after "careful examination of all possible risks, including abuse and diversion threats in view of their possible uses in connection with chemical weapons", the ministry said.
Ministry sources said the chemicals were "classic dual-use" products that could also be used in the surface treatment of metals, fluorination of drinking water and the manufacture of toothpaste.
The ministry added that the "government has no information to suggest the delivered goods have since then been used for anything other than the stated civilian purposes."
Meanwhile, the Oryx blog reports that the Germany auto-company Mercedes exported lorries to Syria which were converted for military use.
Syria
This from Reuters:
Russia will show the UN Security Council evidence it has received from Syria's government pointing to the use of chemical weapons by rebels in Damascus, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
"We will present all this in the UN Security Council, of course."
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Here's our latest story on Syria, including Russian comments on the UN report, the HRW study, and French reaction.
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Apologies for the lack of updates, I've just been writing Al Jazeera's latest news story, which should be live on the main site soon.
More from Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov on the UN report, this time talking after meeting Bashar al-Assad in Damascus: "We are disappointed, to put it mildly, about the approach taken by the UN secretariat and the U.N. inspectors, who prepared the report selectively and incompletely."
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Peter Bouckaert is emergencies director at Human Rights Watch and an author of the report that suggested chemical weapons were fired by the Syrian army.
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Here's a link to the Human Rights Watch map on the origin of the missiles fired on August 21. A spokesman told Al Jazeera that the diagram was based on the details on flight measurements contained in the UN report.
And this is a link to the accompanying article, analysis by HRW. It states:
In appendix 5 of their report, after describing the size and structure of two rocket delivery systems used, they go one step further and actually reveal the direction some of the rockets likely came from. Using standard field investigative techniques examining the debris field and impact area where the rockets struck, the report provides precise azimuths, or angular measurements, that allow us to work out the actual trajectory of the rockets."Impact site number 1 (Moadamiya) and impact site number 4 (Ein Tarma)," the inspectors wrote, "provide sufficient evidence to determine, with a sufficient degree of accuracy, the likely trajectory of the projectiles." They go on to say that 3 of the rockets they inspected had bearings of 34 and 35 degrees for 2 of the rockets that landed in Moadamiya, and 285 degrees for 1 of the rockets that landed in Ein Tarma.Connecting the dots provided by these numbers allows us to see for ourselves where the rockets were likely launched from and who was responsible.This isn’t conclusive, given the limited data available to the UN team, but it is highly suggestive and another piece of the puzzle.
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More from AFP:
France on Wednesday rejected a claim by Russia that a UN report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was biased. "Nobody can question the objectivity of the people (inspectors) appointed by the UN," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a news conference, adding that he was "very surprised" by Russia's assertion, made earlier in the day by deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Ryabkov earlier said of the UN report: "Without a full picture... we cannot describe the character of the conclusions as anything other than politicised, biased and one-sided."
Syria
Good afternoon, Graeme Baker here on liveblog duties. Let's start with some quotes from Faisal Muqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, as reported by the AFP.
Muqdad said the report contained "nothing new" and that the regime had consistently said opposition forces were using sarin."If the report's main object is to say whether sarin gas was used or not, it has nothing new for us, because from the beginning we said sarin gas was used."We gave concrete reports, authenticated by our medical persons and our experts on chemicals."I can confirm once again that Syria did not, will not use chemical weapons against its people."Now we tell them, take these weapons and do whatever you like to do with them. We don't want them anymore."This is a sincere action by the Syrian government to stop such accusations."
The UN report didn't point the finger, but it did actually contain new information: it cited warheads and weapons types used in the attack (that others say are beyond anything the rebels are known to possess), and also provided measurements which allowed the weapons to be traced to their point of origin (ie firing position). The Washington DC-based Arms Control Organisation, which describes itself as a non-partisan thinktank, analysed the UN report here.
The original UN document can be found here.
As ever, the views contained within linked materials are not necessarily those of Al Jazeera.
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The chief UN chemical weapons inspector says his team will return to Syria "within weeks" to complete the investigation it had started before the Aug 21 gas attack of other alleged chemical weapons attacks in the country.
Ake Sellstrom told The Associated Press Wednesday the team will evaluate "allegations of chemical weapons use from both sides, but perhaps mainly from the Syrian government's side".
He said he doesn't currently think there is a need for more investigations of the Aug. 21 attacks, but said "if we receive any additional information it will be included next time we report".
He declined to specify where the inspectors would go or which specific events they would look more closely at.
[AP]
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The Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in a chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said after talks in Damascus.
"The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side. We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.
Ryabkov also said Russia was disappointed with a UN report into the chemical weapons attack, saying it was selective and had ignored other episodes. "Without a full picture... we cannot describe the character of the conclusions as anything other than politicised, biased and one-sided," he said.
[AFP]
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