Assad regime drops thermite bombs on rebel-held province

[TomSea]

Assad regime drops thermite bombs on rebel-held province

Mobile phone footage of fierce fires burning in Saraqeb was posted online by witnesses
Several towns in Syria’s rebel-controlled Idlib province have been hit with incendiary weapons as President Assad and his allies step up their bombing campaign after last week’s nerve gas attacks.

Multiple witnesses recorded mobile phone footage of fierce fires burning in the town of Saraqeb yesterday evening. The bright white burning plumes of the missiles which started the blazes suggest that they were either white phosphorus or thermite bombs.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/assad-regime-drops-thermite-bombs-on-rebel-province-fklmrlnhg

Related: http://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=64584

[LonestarDream]

Related: http://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=64584

ZeroHedge has this story 24 hours before and claimed it was phosphorous. 

While it is questionable if this stuff should be banned, the fact that Assad  is using a banned substance tends to argue that he would have been capable of the chemical attack.

@don-o

[Rivergirl]

Shh.  Don't tell the president, he's busy golfing.

[don-o]

Shh.  Don't tell the president, he's busy golfing.

icymi, he hosted a swearing in today.

Have you heard about the SCOTUS win?

Have you thanked God today that we were preserved from a Hillary Presidency?

[Maj. Bill Martin]

ZeroHedge has this story 24 hours before and claimed it was phosphorous. 

While it is questionable if this stuff should be banned, the fact that Assad  is using a banned substance tends to argue that he would have been capable of the chemical attack.

@don-o

I don't understand the argument that Assad had "nothing to gain", and therefore wouldn't have engaged in the chemical attack.  The war has been going on for years, and though he's doing better, it could still go on for a long time.  It is entirely possible he believed that a chemical attack for which he suffered no adverse consequences would be a morale-killer for those still resisting him.  It might have been an attempt to essentially end the whole thing quickly that he felt was worth the risk.  And to be honest, Trump's own pre-attack rhetoric may well have led Assad to conclude he could get away with it.

[EC]

ZeroHedge has this story 24 hours before and claimed it was phosphorous. 

While it is questionable if this stuff should be banned, the fact that Assad  is using a banned substance tends to argue that he would have been capable of the chemical attack.

@don-o

@LonestarDream

Took a look at a the video. It's impossible to tell which it is, since the video doesn't show them hitting. Thermite and phosphorus sound completely different when they go off. Phosphorus is your common or garden bang, thermite makes sort of a whooshing growl. The smoke suggests phosphorus (thermite makes more of a mushroom cloud effect until the fire gets really going) but it's not definite.

Both are nasty, but phosphorus - put it this way, we won't use it other than in flares, no matter what the need.
Sorry can't help further on that.