Russia says that home-made ammunition was used in a chemical attack carried out in Syrias northwestern city of Aleppo in March, which killed over two dozen people.The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday, The used round of ammunition was a homemade item on the basis of rockets made in Syrias north by the so-called Bashair Al-Nasr brigade.
Moscow made the statement based on conclusions reached by the Russian experts who carried out an investigation into the March 19 chemical attack, which reportedly left 26 Syrian civilians and soldiers dead and nearly 100 others affected.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the chemical weapons used in the attack were not made by the Syrian army.
The findings by the Russian experts come amid a rising threat of war against Syria over the unsubstantiated accusation that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons.
The rhetoric of war against Syria first gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the Middle Eastern country and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar.
The Syrian government categorically rejected the accusation and said the militants had conducted the attack to draw in foreign military intervention.
Nevertheless, a number of Western countries, including the United States, France, and Britain, quickly started campaigning for war.
The talk of war reached a peak on Tuesday, August 27, when media outlets reported US plans for likely surgical attacks.
Later, however, domestic and international calls against a potential war forced some of the warmongering countries to temporarily tone down their stances.
On August 29, the British parliament voted against participation by Britain, the United States closest ally, in any potential military intervention in Syria under the current circumstances.
On Friday, August 30, NATO also distanced itself from participating in any military intervention in Syria, with the chief of the Western military coalition, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, saying he did not foresee any NATO role in a war on Syria.
However, Washington remained defiant, saying that it is willing to go ahead with its plans for a strike on Syria without the approval of the United Nations or even the support of its allies. Under mounting pressure though, US President Barack Obama said on Saturday, August 31 that his administration will first seek authorization from the Congress.
Although the American legislators were highly skeptical of any US war on Syria at first, criticizing a draft resolution sent to them by the Obama administration, they now seem on their way to approving White House plans for a war.
The US lawmakers drafted a bipartisan measure on Wednesday, September 4 - to be voted on in the two chambers of the US Congress later - imposing a 90-day deadline for US military intervention but banning the deployment of any US troops on the ground in Syria.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has said it also plans to use Air Force bombers in addition to destroyers armed with cruise missiles, which were the primary means of launching an attack on Syria.
All of this comes while the team of UN inspectors, who recently visited Syria to probe the sites of chemical attacks, has yet to release the findings of its inspection.
The UN, Iran, Russia, and China have warned against war.
By Press TV
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