MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Toxic chemicals have been seized by the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) due to irresponsible steps of the Western countries’ representatives, Lieutenant General Vladimir Savchenko, the chief of the Russian center for reconciliation of conflicting sides in Syria, said on Wednesday.
"In the evening of October 9, a gang of one of the pro-IS groups attacked the headquarters of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (former Jabhat al-Nusra, outlawed in Russia) located near the village of al-Lataminah," he said. "In the fight, four militants and two members of the White Helmets organization were killed. Two cylinders containing chlorine were taken out of the headquarters. The seized cylinders were transported to the south of Aleppo province and handed over to terrorists of the Hurras al-Din terrorist group associated with the Islamic State."
"The Western countries, while planning provocations against Syrian government forces and employing their controlled bandit groups, do not take into account the complicated situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone. As a result of those irresponsible steps, poisonous chemicals ended up in the hands of Islamic State terrorists whose actions are hard to predict," the reconciliation center’s head added.
Russia has reiterated that members of the non-governmental organization White Helmets were getting ready to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians. Their aim was to pin the blame for the chemical weapons attacks on the Syrian government forces and to justify the Western countries’ strikes on Syria.
In September, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and the White Helmets were making preparations to fake a chemical weapons attack and for this purpose, the banned nerve agent sarin had been transported to the Idlib province.