Does Assad Have Soviet 140 mm Sarin, 330 mm trashcan-on-a-stick Chem Rockets?
People seem to be sure the rebels don't have 140mm or 330mm rockets, but there's no evidence Assad has 140mm rockets which are obsolete cold-war era, and nobody knows where the trashcan on a stick 330mm weapon comes from. It's not in Janes or wikipedia or FAS or anywhere. Nobody is taking credit for it. It comes in two sizes, the largest has to be stuck on a truck with a raised rail launcher.
140mm “The 140 mm rockets carry about 5 liters of sarin liquid, which vaporizes on impact,” he said..The rebels are known to have launchers for rockets similar to the ones that hit Moadamiya, but theirs are smaller versions with 120 mm rockets, not 140 mm rockets as used in the attack.
The reason is clear, Bouckaert said:.. The 140 mm version is an outdated piece of Soviet hardware, and was designed for chemical attacks. The overall usefulness of such a weapons system to the rebels, even if they had chemicals to use, would be limited.
Austin Long, a security and weapons expert at Columbia University,....very likely moved one rocket system to a secure location near the base and launched.
The rocket used in the second attack, he wrote, was unusual and more difficult to assess but most probably was fired from close to the base.. “But the 330 mm rocket is essentially a rocket with a trash can on the end. It carries about 55 liters of sarin liquid, which also vaporizes on impact.”
He said Human Rights Watch estimated that far more people died from the 330 mm shelling.
“The 330 mm rocket appears to be a unique Syrian weapon so I have not the foggiest idea of its range,” Long wrote. He added: “Just eyeballing the map and knowing the azimuth, the two attacks could have very similar points of origin.”
Azimuths weren’t the only evidence damning the Syrian regime in this case. Bouckaert noted that the weapons and the attack itself implicated the Syrian military.
The rocket that hit Zamalka, however, is stronger evidence. Bouckaert said the 330 mm rocket was made industrially.
“But we haven’t seen it before in any conflict,” he said. “It’s not in the books. It’s not listed anywhere.”
It appears to have been designed to be fired from an Iranian launcher, which the Syrians are known to have. But the rocket itself appears to be Syrian made.
“Two different rocket systems, both known to be used by the Syrian regime and not by the rebels, a precision attack on rebel areas, a substantial amount of sarin and launched from regime-controlled areas,” Bouckaert said, rattling off the clues to the Assad regime’s involvement. “The case is very strong.”
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