Is another Western military attack against Syria in the making?

Tabnak – As the Syrian army continues its advances against the rebel and terrorist groups in different parts of the country, foreign supporters of the rebels seem to be preparing for an excuse to hinder the advances. Moscow believes that the Western countries are once again about to manufacture a “chemical scenario” for this purpose.

In this vein, the Russian Defense Ministry says the US, Britain and France are preparing to conduct a fresh aerial assault against Syria under the pretext of the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Damascus government.

The ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday that a group of militants, who were trained by a private British military company to work with poisonous materials, had already arrived in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province.

"To carry out the alleged 'chemical attack' in the city of Jisr al-Shughur in the province of Idlib, militants from the Tahrir al-Sham group had delivered 8 tankers with chlorine… to a village a few kilometers from Jisr al-Shughur," Konashenkov said. The Russian general further warned that a possible militant gas attack on Syria would be followed by a Western strike against the Arab country.

"This provocation with the active participation of the British special services will serve as another pretext for the US, UK and France to conduct a missile strike on the Syrian government and economic facilities," he said.

The official further noted that the American destroyer USS The Sullivans armed with 56 cruise missiles had also arrived in the Persian Gulf and a US В-1В bomber carrying 24 air-to-surface AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles had been deployed at Al Udeid airbase in Qatar.

This comes against the backdrop of new gains the Syrian army has achieved in the battlefield against the rebel and terrorist groups. In this vein, it’s reported that the Syrian Army continued mop-up operation in Southeastern Deir Ezzur on Saturday, and discovered several ISIS depots of arms and ammunition made in western states.

The army's engineering units carried out cleansing operation in the town of Sabikhan in Southeastern Deir Ezzur and discovered a depot of arms and ammunition in ISIS’ positions with a large volume of shoulder-launched missiles, cannons, tanks and mortars, including those made in the western countries.

Reports also indicate that terrorist groups, deployed in Northwestern Syria, went on alert on Saturday as the government forces reinvigorated their combat capabilities for an imminent large-scale operation in Idlib, Lattakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces.

A military source, meantime, said that the army has reinvigorated its positions in Hama, al-Ghaab plain and Jabal al-Turkmen after dispatching several convoys to the region via the road connecting al-Saqilibiyeh to Mahrada.

However, as countdown begins for the Idlib counter-terrorism campaign, Turkey tries to avert the push, claiming that it will lead to a humanitarian crisis. Speaking at a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the two countries could cooperate on separating Idlib “terrorists" from opposition groups.