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Israel Has Evidence Syrian Forces Used Chemical Weapons In Damascus: Report

Report: Israel Has Evidence Syrian Forces Used Chemical Weapons In Damascus
Reuters
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In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, black smoke and flame rise from the rooftop of a building that was, according to SANA, attacked by a mortar shelled by the Syrian rebels in Damascus, Syria, Saturday April 5, 2014. Al-Qaida's leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on fighters to determine who killed his chief representative in Syria, a man many militant groups believe died at the hands of a rival militia, in a move that highlighted a conflict between rebels that has killed hundreds. (AP Photo/SANA)

JERUSALEM, April 7 (Reuters) - Israel Radio said on Monday that Israel has evidence backing Syrian opposition accusations that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad had used non-lethal chemical weapons in Damascus last month.

The report quoted an unidentified senior Israeli defense official as saying there were two attacks on March 27, using a "neutralizing chemical weapon", east of Damascus and at another location.

The report was broadcast shortly after Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon met the Israeli media. There was no immediate comment from government officials.

Last Thursday, opposition activists accused Assad's forces of using poison gas, showing footage of an apparently unconscious man lying on a bed and being treated by medics.

The alleged attack, the activists said, was carried out in Damascus's Jobar neighborhood. Reuters could not independently verify the footage or the claims due to security restrictions on reporting in Syria.

One opposition group, the Syrian Revolutionary Coordinators Union, said that all those affected by the gas were "in a good condition". There has been on-off fighting between rebels and government forces in Jobar this year.

A U.N. inquiry found in December that sarin gas had likely been used in Jobar in August and in several other locations, including in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta, where hundreds of people were killed.

The inquiry was only looking at whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them. The Syrian government and the opposition have each accused the other of using chemical weapons, and both have denied it.

The Ghouta attack sparked global outrage and a U.S. threat of military strikes, which was dropped after Assad pledged to destroy his chemical weapons.

But the Syrian government failed to meet a Feb. 5 deadline to move all of its declared chemical substances and precursors, some 1,300 tonnes, out of the country. Israel Radio quoted the defense official as saying the material used on March 27 was not on the list of chemicals due to be removed.

Syria has since agreed to a new timetable to remove the weapons by late April.

Syria's three-year civil war has killed more than 150,000 people, a third of them civilians, and caused millions to flee. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Crispian Balmer)

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Before You Go

Syria War In March
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This picture taken on Wednesday, March 5, 2014, provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrians inspecting the rubble of a destroyed buildings following a Syrian government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center AMC) (credit:AP)
(02 of29)
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This picture taken on Saturday, March 1, 2014, provided by the anti-government activist group Coordination Committee In Kfar Takharim, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian citizens trying to extinguish flames rising from buildings that were attacked by Syrian government airstrike in the town of Kfar Takharim in the northwest province of Idlib, Syria. (AP Photo/Coordination Committee In Kfar Takharim) (credit:AP)
(03 of29)
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A picture shows Syria's empty chair at an Arab foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on March 9, 2014. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A man is comforted by a rescue worker and others following a reported air strike by government forces in which a fellow rescue worker was killed on March 9, 2014 in the northern city of Aleppo. (Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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An injured Syrian rescue worker reacts as he receives medical assistance following a reported air strike by government forces on March 9, 2014 in the northern city of Aleppo. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(06 of29)
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A Syrian refugee family from Aleppo stay under a shelter during a rainy day on March 8, 2014, in the Uskudar district of Istanbul. (BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Syrian rebel fighter shows female members of the 'Mother Aisha' battalion how to use a weapon in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 8, 2014. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Female members of the 'Mother Aisha' battalion walk in a street holding weapons in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 8, 2014. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Syrian forces patrol a street in the town of Zara, in the province of Homs, on March 8, 2014 during fighting against rebels. (AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Syrian man runs past rubble as smoke billows in the background following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces during the Friday prayers in the Sukkari neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo on March 7, 2014. (BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Syrian emergency personnel extinguish a fire following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces on March 7, 2014 during the Friday prayer in the Sukkari neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo. (BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Rebel fighters make their way to the front-line in the village of Morek, in the countryside of the Syrian city of Hama, on March 7, 2014. (Ali Nasser/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Fruit and vegetable vendors are seen stationed next to the debris of a building in the northern city of Aleppo on March 7, 2014. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A couple watch as members of the Syrian emergency personnel clear up the damage caused by air strikes on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 7, 2014. (MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A rebel fighter runs for cover as a mortar is launched towards pro-regime fighters during clashes in the Sheikh Najjar district on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 6, 2014. (MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Syrian emergency services personnel help a wounded man following an air strike by government forces on the Sahour neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 6, 2014. (KHALED KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Opposition fighters fire a heavy machine gun from a vehicle during clashes with government forces in the town of Khan Sheikhun, in Syria's Idlib province on March 6, 2014. (GHAITH OMRAN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Syrian man breathes through an oxygen mask as he is trapped under the rubble following an air strike by government forces on the Sahour neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 6, 2014. (KHALED KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Syrian man holds a crying girl as he gestures following an air strike by government forces on the Sahour neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 6, 2014. (Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Syrians look at the destruction following an airstrike by government forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 5, 2014. (BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Syrian girl walks in the street following an airstrike by government forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 5, 2014. (BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pro-government fighters hold the Syrian flag as they pose for a photo in the village of al-Sahel, near the rebel held town of Yabrud, nearly 80 kilometres north of Damascus, on March 4, 2014. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Opposition fighters fire weapons during clashes with government forces in the Sheikh Najjar district on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 3, 2014. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Rebel fighters are seen inside a building in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 3, 2014. (MAHMUD ABDEL RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Rebel fighters position their tanks in the area of Khanasser, south of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on March 3, 2014. (OBAIDA AL-SHAMI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Rebel fighters hold a position near the front line on March 2, 2014 in the Sheikh Najjar district on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A rebel fighter stands back as a rocket is launched towards a pro-government forces position in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, in Idlib province, on March 2, 2014. (GHAITH OMRAN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A rebel fighter looks through a barricaded window in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on March 2, 2014. (MAHMUD ABDEL RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A picture taken on March 1, 2014 shows the wreckage of a Syrian army helicopter after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)'s fighters allegedly destroyed it when they left the Meng Military Airport, in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, to prevent other opposition groups taking it over. (MOHAMMED AL-KHATIEB/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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