Rebels forming unit to secure chemical weapons site

“There were two main stores — warehouse 417 in east Damascus, and another,
number 419 in Homs area. We had 1,500 soldiers and two or three generals
stationed at each base,” he said.

As the Syrian regime’s iron-fist rule begins to unravel the question of how to
maintain the security of these sites has become of central concern to
Syrians and foreign governments alike.

The Daily Telegraph was told that British military intelligence chiefs believe
that the Assad regime could yet deploy some of the stores in a desperate
attempt to regain power.

Gen Silou agrees with the disturbing assessment. In his decades of service to
the regime Silou said that he met President Bashar al-Assad and members of
his inner circle ‘countless times’.

“I know Bashar al-Assad’s character. It is very possible that he will use the
chemical weapons against his own people,” said Gen Silou. “They can deploy
them from tanks, from rockets, and from helicopters”.

Gen Silou decided to come out of his retirement and join the FSA leadership in
Turkey when the government attacked Homs in February. In addition to the
barrages of artillery fired from tanks, the attack increased his concern
that Mr Assad could deploy chemical weapons in the future. He is convinced
that the regime sprayed pesticides from planes on population areas in
Rastan, a hub for the rebel Free Syrian Army close to Homs.

The claims cannot be independently confirmed, but in February and March
patients seen by the Daily Telegraph who had led Rasatn and Homs for Lebanon
showed signs of hair loss, skin irritation, chronic muscle pain and
sickness. Doctors in Lebanon treating Syrian patients from Rastan and Homs
who had fled the country reported seeing unusual symptoms.

There are also serious fears that as the security structure in the country
unravels these lethal weapons could fall out of government control and into
the hands of militia groups, including radical Islamic units that might try
to deploy them.

“We are now scanning all Syrian military defectors for people with training on
chemical weapons,” said Louay al-Mokdad, an oppositoni activist. “We are
putting them in one unit that can work to secure the sites.”

“The weapons used to be to protect Syria. Now they are just to protect
Bashar,” said Gen Silou.

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