Report: Ex-Syrian officers confirm using ammonium nitrate that came from Lebanon
Syria’s new authorities have started probing “the involvement of the former Syrian regime in cooperation with Iran-backed Lebanese militias” in “the import and smuggling of the ammonium nitrate” of which hundreds of tons exploded at Beirut’s port on August 4, 2020, sources informed on the work of Syria’s justice ministry and judiciary said.
“The regime used this substance through mixing it with fuel to produce low-cost and highly destructive explosives,” Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.
It quoted the sources as saying that the investigations are based on the testimonies of former officers who “confirmed their participation in the use of this substance that was smuggled from Lebanon.”
The alleged testimonies also said that “Syrian regime officers in coordination with Lebanese sides oversaw the transfer of the shipments arriving at Beirut’s port based on direct instructions from Maher al-Assad,” the brother of Syria’s ousted president Bashar al-Assad and the previous commander of the Fourth Armored Division.
“These shipments were used to manufacture the explosive barrels that killed thousands of civilians and destroyed vast areas of Syria,” Nidaa al-Watan said.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, around 50,000 explosive barrels were dropped during the Syrian war years.
“The investigations are expanding daily and new secrets about the ammonium nitrate scandals and its repercussions are being exposed, which puts senior Syrian, Lebanese and Iranian officials in the spotlight,” the Syrian sources added.
“Their names are expected to be revealed upon the end of all measures and the announcement of the probe’s outcome,” the sources said, adding that “the investigations have expanded to target Lebanese nationals linked to an international network who contributed to facilitating the entry of ammonium nitrate shipments to Lebanon and allowed their transfer to Syria, despite knowing the danger of the material’s use.”
