Chief of the Russian Federation General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, told reporters that they have reliable information that the US intends to use the militants’ provocation in Eastern Ghouta, Syria, as a grounds for launching a strike to the government districts of Damascus, reported RIA Novosti news agency of Russia.

In his words, after this provocation, the US plans to accuse Damascus of using chemical weapons and to present “evidence” of the mass death of the civilian population because of the Syrian government and the “Russian leadership that supports” it.

Gerasimov noted that, as a retaliation, Washington “plans to launch a missile and bomb strike to the government districts of Damascus.”