TIP fighters in northern Lattakia.
Four terrorists of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) were behind the claims of a “chemical attack” in northern Lattakia, which were adopted by the U.S., the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) revealed on May 23.
“The Syrian Observatory learned from a number of reliable sources that the source of information about the chlorine gas strike [in northern Lattakia] are members of the TIP,” the monitoring group said in its report.
According to the report, the terrorists suffered from suffocation when the SAA struck a cave they were hiding in. Three of them immediately recovered in a nearby hospital, while the fourth one was in a critical condition, because he was already suffering from his asthma.
HTS was the first to announce the attack through its news network, Iba’a, on May 19. Back then the terrorist group said that nobody was killed or injured in the supposed chemical attack.
The SOHR said that HTS reporters filmed the four injured TIP terrorists while they were recovering in the hospital and sent the video to the Turkish government and to civil organizations in Turkey.
Washington had adopted the claims of the TIP and HTS, accusing the SAA of “renewing its use of chemical weapons” and vowing a “quick and appropriate” response in a statement released on May 21.
As expected, France followed the footsteps of the U.S. saying that HTS and the TIP accusations “should be looked into.”
“We have noted with a degree of alarm these allegations, which need to be looked into,” France’s foreign ministry said in an online press briefing on May 22.
Washington and Paris didn’t clarify if they are planning to cooperate with al-Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria in order to investigate the alleged “chemical attack.” This step would be necessary as all the witnesses and victims are apparently foreign terrorists.
