U.K. military aiding spy probe
Russia says it’s not to blame
British police asked the military on Friday to help investigate the nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy, as investigators’ attention increasingly focused on the victim’s house in a quiet suburban street.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister said his country might be willing to help with this investigation but expressed resentment at suggestions Moscow was behind the attack on Sergei Skripal. The ex-agent was found unconscious on a bench in the English city of Salisbury on Sunday alongside his daughter Yulia. The pair are in a critical condition in a local hospital. A police officer who helped investigate is in serious condition and a total of 21 people have received medical treatment.
Counterterrorism detectives have called in military help “to remove a number of vehicles and objects from the scene” of the attack, the Metropolitan Police force said.
About 180 soldiers, marines and air force personnel have been called in because “they have the necessary capability and expertise,” police said. They said health advice remains the same — that there is no broader risk to the public.
Detectives are retracing the movements of Sergei and Yulia Skripal as they try to discover how the toxin was administered and where it was manufactured. British authorities have not disclosed what nerve agent was involved.
Police have cordoned off sites including Skripal’s house, a car, the cemetery where his wife is buried, a restaurant and a pub.
Former London police chief Ian Blair said Friday that a police officer who is in serious condition visited Skripal’s house — perhaps a hint that the nerve agent may have been delivered there.
Blair told BBC radio that Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey “has actually been to the house, whereas there is a doctor who looked after the patients in the open who hasn’t been affected at all. There may be some clues floating around in here.”
Highly toxic and banned in almost all countries, nerve agents require expertise to manufacture — leading some to suspect whoever poisoned Skripal had the backing of a state.
“A well-equipped lab and a very experienced analytical chemist can do it, but it’s not the sort of thing a chancer doing kitchensink chemistry can get away with,” said chemical weapons expert Richard Guthrie.
Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer, was convicted in his home country in 2006 of spying for Britain and released in 2010 as part of a spy swap. He had been living quietly in Salisbury, a cathedral city 140 kilometres southwest of London.