Home

Search ICH

 

 Print Friendly and PDF

OPCW investigation couldn’t find evidence to prove chemical use in 2 Syria attacks

By MIKE CORDER

October 03, 2020 "Information Clearing House" -  THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The global chemical weapons watchdog said Friday that two investigations into alleged attacks in Syria in 2016 and 2018 couldn’t establish that chemicals were used as weapons in either case.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons issued two reports by its Fact-Finding Mission into attacks in Saraqib in the Idlib region on Aug. 1, 2016, and in Aleppo on Nov. 24, 2018.

The report on the Saraqib attack said that open source reports suggested around 30 people, mainly women and children experienced breathing difficulties. The reports also “indicated the presence of a substance with an odor similar to that of chlorine,” the OPCW report said.

Opposition groups blamed the attack on Syrian government forces, an allegation Syria rejected, the OPCW report said.

No Advertising - No Government Grants - This Is Independent Media

Get Our Free Newsletter
You can't buy your way onto these pages

The Fact-Finding Mission wasn’t able to visit the site of the alleged incident or the hospital where injured victims were treated. It had to rely on data including interviews, hospital records and videos and photographs.

Its investigations and analysis “did not allow the FFM to establish whether or not chemicals were used as a weapon,” according to the report issued Friday.

The alleged chlorine attack in Aleppo was blamed on rebel forces.

“Social media reported that armed opposition groups dismissed accusations that they had used poisonous gases to attack areas controlled by the government in the city of Aleppo,” the OPCW report said.

Despite visiting hospitals to collect medical records and analyzing samples, the Aleppo investigation also didn’t establish whether chemicals were used as a weapon, the report said.

In the past, a joint U.N.-OPCW investigative mechanism accused Syria of using chlorine and the nerve agent sarin during the civil war, while the Islamic State group was accused of using mustard gas twice in 2015 and 2016.

In April this year, an OPCW investigation blamed the Syrian air force for a series of chemical attacks using sarin and chlorine in late March 2017 on the central town of Latamneh.

The Syrian government has consistently rejected repeated allegations that it launched chemical weapons attacks.

- "Source" -

Post your comment below

See also

Aaron Maté testifies at UN on OPCW Syria cover-up

   

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

 

                  

 

Search Information Clearing House

===

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

Click Here To Support Information Clearing House

Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002.

Click for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

Privacy Statement