Dozens of Hezbollah fighters were killed last week in a chemical attack perpetrated against them in error by their allies in the Syrian air force, diplomatic sources in Beirut told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported on Sunday. The report said that Syrian aircraft attacked by mistake the town of al-Ais south of Aleppo. The attack came as part of the Syrian regime’s effort to retake the Aleppo area, and the Hezbollah men simply got in the way.
The report said there were chemical burn marks on the bodies. “This is not the first incident to take place due to the coordination problems between the regime and the Russian army, Hezbollah and Iran,” the diplomatic source told Al Jarida, noting that “such incidents have been repeated since the Russians’ entry into the conflict.”
The same source raised concerns regarding the Syrian regime’s return to everyday use of unconventional weapons, well after it was established that the President Assad army no longer possesses such weapons and had committed to never using such weapons again. The source even suggested that part of President Putin’s decision to take his army out of Syria had to do with concerns regarding Syrian chemical weapons.
The source suggested the incident may also cause Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to pull his forces out of Syria. Hezbollah casualties in the Syrian civil war are believed to have surpassed 1,000.
In early April, ISIS attacked the Assad forces with chemical weapons at an airbase in eastern Syria, according to state news agency SANA. The report said “ISIS terrorists attacked Deir Ezzor military airport with rockets carrying mustard gas, causing some people to suffocate.”