The Russian Defense Ministry has warned that members of the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist outfit together with the so-called civil defense group White Helmets are planning to stage yet another false- flag chemical attack against civilians in the northwestern province of Idlib to implicate Damascus.
“The Russian military has received information that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists are preparing to carry out provocations in the Idlib de-escalation zone by means of poisonous substances. According to informed sources, the terrorists have moved a tanker laden with toxic substances to the town of Atme as they plan to lace their rockets with them,” the deputy head of the ministry's Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, Rear Admiral Alexander Vadim Kulit, said.
He added that the Takfiris, in cooperation with White Helmets representatives, intend to stage a false-flag chemical attack in a bid to incriminate Syrian government forces and accuse the troops of using banned munitions in the populated areas.
The White Helmets group, which claims to be a humanitarian NGO, is known for its coordination with terror outfits in Syria to carry out staged chemical attacks in order to falsely incriminate Syrian government forces and fabricate pretexts for military strikes by a US-led military coalition present in Syria since 2014.
On April 14, 2018, the US, Britain, and France carried out a string of airstrikes against Syria over a suspected chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the capital Damascus.
That alleged attack was reported by the White Helmets group, which published videos showing them purportedly treating survivors.
Washington and its allies blamed Damascus for the Douma attack, an allegation strongly rejected by the Syrian government.
The Western media and governments have repeatedly accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons against its own citizens in the war against terrorists.
This is while Syria surrendered its stockpile of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons.
Russia has been providing Syrian forces with crucial military assistance in the ongoing battles across the conflict-plagued Arab country.
The Russian assistance, which began in September 2015 at the official request of the Syrian government, has proved effective as Syrians continue to recapture key areas from remnants of the Daesh terrorist group and other foreign-backed terrorist factions.