The British paper Daily Mail has removed an article titled «The United States supported the plan to carry out a chemical attack in Syria and blame Assad regime» dated January 29 2013.

On Friday, US launched 59 missiles on the Syrian Shayrat airfield in HOMS province, without any proof claiming that a chemical attack in Idlib province was carried out from there.

Author of the article Louise Boyle reported that the US planned chemical attack to serve as a pretext for strengthening the international coalition military action in Syria.

«Emails, supposedly proving that the White House gave approval for carrying out chemical attack in Syria, which would be blamed on Assad regime and in turn would strengthen international military operations in the country. The published report contains correspondence between the two senior officials of the British-based company Britam Defence, which states that plan „approved by Washington” suggests that Qatar will finance the use of chemical weapons by rebel forces in Syria,» — the article says.

The article says that the correspondence was published by Malaysian hacker who also obtained access to resumes and copies of passports of its leaders.

RIA Novosti has asked Daily Mail to answer why and when exactly this article was removed from the website.

Official representative of Russian Defense Ministry major General Igor Konashenkov said Friday that the strike by US cruise missiles at Syrian airbase was prepared long before the events of Friday.

«It is obvious that American cruise missile strike on Syrian airbase has been prepared long before today's events. For preparation of such impact it is necessary to conduct a large set of activities for exploration, planning, preparation of flight missions and bringing the missiles ready for launch»,- he said.

According to Konashenkov, «For any specialist it is clear that the decision on the missile strike on Syria was made in Washington long before the events at Khan Shaykhun, which served only as a formal reason, and a show of military strength is dictated solely by political reasons».