A former member of a city council in the Turkish province of Hatay says that the chemical weapons used in last month\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s attack in Syria were transported from Turkey, Press TV reports<\/b>.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cFour months ago, Turkish security forces found a two-kilogram cylinder with sarin gas after searching the homes of Syrian militants from the al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. They are using our borders to take the gas into Syria,\u201d Mohamad Gunes said.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cThe Syrian president has no reason to kill his own people,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n
People in the southern province, which borders Syria, said that the weapons were used by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front militants and not the Syrian government.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cAmerica and Israel had al-Qaeda use chemical weapons in order to push us into war; none of us wants war here. In the history of Hatay, we all lived peacefully side by side, now there is Mossad, CIA and al-Qaeda all over the place. We are worried that they might use chemical weapons against us,\u201d said Farid Mainy, a Hatay resident and an activist.\n<\/p>\n
The residents believe the Turkish government is allowing the transfer of weapons because Ankara is trying to create a pretext in order to wage war on its neighbor.\n<\/p>\n
US President Barack Obama is trying to convince the Congress to approve a military strike against Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.\n<\/p>\n
Washington says it has obtained evidence proving that the Syrian army was behind the chemical attack near Damascus on August 21, which killed hundreds of Syrians.\n<\/p>\n
The Syrian government has repeatedly said that the deadly attack was carried out by militants operating inside the country in a bid to draw in a foreign military intervention.\n<\/p>\n
Obama has delayed military action pending Congressional approval at a vote scheduled for September 9.\n<\/p>\n
On Monday, Russia dismissed as \u00c5\u201cabsolutely unconvincing\u201d the evidence presented by the US accusing the Syrian government of the gas attack.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cWhen you ask for more detailed proof, they say all of this is classified so we cannot show this to you,\u201d Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated.\n<\/p>\n
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey — are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.\n<\/p>\n
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the number of Syrian refugees, who have fled the country\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s 29-month-long conflict, reached two million.\n<\/p>\n
\u00c5\u201cSyria is hemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs,\u201d the UNHCR said.\n<\/p>\n
The UN refugee agency also said that some 4.2 million people have also been displaced inside Syria since the beginning of the conflict in the Arab country.\n<\/p>\n
MN\/MHB<\/p>\n