Chlorine confirmed by experts in Syria

GLOBAL arms experts on Wednesday confirmed chlorine was used in a Syrian town in February leaving residents fighting for breath, as the world awaits the results of a probe into last month’s alleged poison gas attack on Douma.

A fact-finding mission by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons determined “chlorine was released from cylinders by mechanical impact in the Al Talil neighbourhood of Saraqeb” on February 4, an OPCW statement said.

The team’s conclusions were based on finding two cylinders “which were determined as previously containing chlorine”.

In addition, the OPCW said environmental samples had “demonstrated the unusual presence of chlorine in the local environment”. Its team had also interviewed witnesses, and found that a “number of patients at medical facilities shortly after the incident showed signs and symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine”.

In line with its mandate, the watchdog did not say which side in Syria’s complex seven-yearold civil war was responsible.

Eleven people were treated for breathing difficulties the day after Syrian government raids on Saraqeb, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at the time.

Results are awaited from a difficult mission by an OPCW factfinding team to the Syrian town of Douma, after medics and rescuers said 40 people died in a chlorine and sarin attack on April 7. The team exhumed bodies and gathered more than 100 environmental samples now being analysed in different OPCW-designated labs.