Russian military finds mustard gas attack trace in Aleppo

The Russian military’s chemical warfare defense unit has once again found traces of chemical arms used by foreign-backed terrorists against civilians in Syria’s Northwestern Province of Aleppo.

This time, the Russian Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD), as the unit is known, found an unexploded shell containing mustard gas, RT reported on Friday.

Such projectiles were reportedly used against residents of a village in the province in September, inflicting respiratory injuries on 40 people.

“An express-analysis of the contents [of ammunition] carried out using a portable infrared spectrometer revealed the presence of vesicant chemical warfare agent sulfur mustard,” said an RChBD representative.

According to RT, the recovered chemical round is a crude homemade 240-mm mortar shell, with a capsule in the rear. The capsule contained from 0.5 to 1.5 liters of a black oily liquid, which proved to be a chemical warfare agent.

The RChBD representative further said, “We’ve taken roughly a 20 milliliter sample from the shell. Afterwards it was sealed tight and delivered to the Russian Centre for reconciliation of opposing sides in the Syrian Arab Republic for further investigation.”

On November 11, the Defense Ministry cited the RChBD as saying that it had found similar unexploded projectiles containing “chlorine and white phosphorus” in the 1070 district of Aleppo’s capital, which bears the same name as the capital.

Aleppo has been divided over the past four years between government forces in the west and foreign-backed terrorists in the east, making it a front-line battleground.

In September, the Russian military had warned that terror groups might start deploying chemical agents against the city’s government-controlled areas.

ME