NEWSWORTHY
U.N. documents further Syrian regime use of banned chemical arms, fears Idlib 'massacre'
U.N. investigators said on Wednesday that they had documented three further uses of banned chlorine weapons by Syrian government forces that constituted war crimes, and urged major powers to help avert a "massacre" in the final battle for Idlib. The attacks caused injuries in the ...
Assad has been warned against using chemical weapons in Idlib: Jim Mattis
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stressed Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has been well warned against any chemical weapons use in an anticipated assault on Idlib province. The Assad regime has twice been targeted by U.S. air and missile strikes after previous alleged chemical ...
Bumblers or just brazen assassins? Spotlight on Russia's ascendant GRU
It seems like a spy film parody — two burly Russian agents staying in a low-end London hotel and doctoring a perfume flask with deadly nerve agent, oblivious to the security cameras filming them along the way. The operation to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal in ...
Syria is preparing chemical weapons for attacks in Idlib, U.S. envoy says
There is "lots of evidence" that chemical weapons are being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib in northwest Syria, the new U.S. adviser for Syria said on Thursday as he warned of the risks of an offensive on the country's last big rebel ...
Planes, trains and fake perfume: How Novichok arrived in Britain
The sheer audacity of Russia's chemical-weapon attack on the U.K. can be traced through the journey of a small — and fake — Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume bottle. It contained Novichok, a lethal Soviet-era nerve agent, and was smuggled from Russia into Britain on ...
Chemical weapons watchdog confirms U.K. nerve agent findings that Novichok killed woman
The global chemical weapons watchdog on Tuesday confirmed findings by British authorities that the Novichok nerve agent killed one person and sickened another in the English town of Amesbury in June. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that its tests showed that ...
Israeli jets flying high over Lebanon struck at targets inside Syria on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported, in a rare daytime raid that killed at least one person. Syria's SANA state news agency said the country's air defenses shot down five missiles, adding that one ...
Iran called on Monday for militants to be "cleaned out" of Syria's Idlib province, as it prepared for talks with Syria and Russia about confronting the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to President Bashar Assad. Syrian government forces are planning a phased offensive ...
Several U.N. Security Council ambassadors on Tuesday voiced concern over the fate of civilians in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib, as Damascus appears ready to militarily re-take the region. Following a council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Syria, Western nations warned of the ...
Russia again claims Syrian rebels are preparing chemical weapons attack
Russia on Tuesday again accused Syrian rebels of preparing a chemical attack that Moscow says will be used to justify a Western strike against Syrian troops. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee is preparing the attack in the ...
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Wednesday against five groups and eight individuals linked to Syria's chemical weapons program, the department said in a statement. The targeted groups and people were key to a network that procured electronics for the Syrian agency that develops ...
Novichok patient said no longer in critical condition but looks 'like a skeleton'
A British man exposed to the nerve agent Novichok is no longer in a critical condition, the hospital treating him said on Wednesday, as police still struggle to understand what happened. The brother of 45-year-old Charlie Rowley also said he had visited him and he ...
