Syrian rebels kill ‘chemical weapons chief ’

A SYRIAN rebel group has claimed it killed the director of a government chemical weapons research facility in a car bombing.

Aziz Asber, director of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre, died near the city of Homs when explosives planted in his car went off, Al-watan, a pro-regime newspaper, reported yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said the attack took place on Saturday.

The Abu Amara Brigade rebel group claimed responsibility in a statement on its Telegram channel, saying that it detonated “planted explosive devices” in Mr Asber’s vehicle. The group is an affiliate of Islamist group Tahrir alsham, itself an al-qaeda affiliate.

The government denies it possesses chemical weapons, and denies claims that it killed hundreds of people in rebel-held areas using chemicals.

Al-watan blamed Israel for Mr Asber’s killing. An Israeli official refused to comment, according to Reuters.

Israel has carried out air strikes in Syria to block weapons transfers to the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, which is supporting the Syrian government’s campaign against rebels.

Western governments claim the research centre was a covert government facility. It had been targeted by air strikes last year, which the Syrian gov- ernment blamed on Israel.

In April, the US, Britain and France struck another research centre in Damascus after a gas attack in Douma that killed more than 40 people. It was the second major Western intervention, following several chemical weapons attacks during the civil war.

A UN investigation held the government of Bashar al-assad responsible for a sarin attack on the rebel bastion Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017, which killed about 100 people. The worst attack, also blamed on the government, was in 2013, when about 1,000 people died in a sarin attack in a rebel-held area in the suburbs of Damascus.