Militants Preparing for Chemical Attack in Syria, Says Russian Military

“The Russian military received information about the preparation by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham of provocations in the northeastern part of the Idlib de-escalation zone using poisonous substances,” Rear Admiral Vyacheslav Sytnik said.

"According to available information, the militants are planning to stage a chemical attack and its consequences in the form of victims and injured among local residents for the subsequent accusations against the Syrian government forces of the use of chemical weapons against civilians," Sytnik said.

He added that the terrorists had delivered containers with toxic substances, presumably with chlorine, in several trucks to the area of ​​the Tarmanin settlement, Sputnik reported.

Russia has repeatedly pointed out that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has ignored the information about terrorist provocations, accusing the body of bias against the Syrian government. Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said the body is being used as a political tool by Western countries to put pressure on "undesirable" states.

In 2014, the OPCW set up the fact-finding mission to establish the truth about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria. Last year, WikiLeaks published an email from a member of the OPCW mission to Syria to his superiors in which he voiced gravest concerns about the redacted version of the fact-finding mission's report he had co-authored.

In November, the Russian military also reported about terrorists preparing provocations aimed at destabilising the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone and discrediting the Syrian armed forces.

According to the Russian military, militants intended to shell the area and publish footage of the consequences of the shelling on their Internet resources in order to accuse the Syrian government forces of striking the positions of Turkish troops.