Chemical arms experts enter Douma

THE HAGUE: Syrian state media reported yesterday that investigators from the world’s chemical watchdog had entered Douma, a town outside Damascus, Syria, where an alleged gas attack 10 days earlier left dozens dead.

“Experts from the chemical weapons committee enter the town of Douma,” state news agency Sana wrote, referring to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The reported toxic gas attack on Douma on April 7 sparked an unprecedented joint missile strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations.

They accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of carrying out the chemical attack on the town, which was then under rebel control but has since been secured by the government and its ally Russia.

The punitive strikes were launched before a fact-finding team from the OPCW was able to enter Douma and begin its field work.

The mission had appeared in question earlier yesterday after Western powers warned that relevant evidence could have been removed from the area or tampered with.

Russia traded accusations with US, France and Britain on Monday, dismissing as “a blatant lie” accusations that Moscow was hindering the investigation in Douma.

The four nations confronted each other in tense emergency talks at the OPCW here.

US ambassador to the OPCW, Ken Ward, claimed the Russians had already visited the site and “may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW factfinding mission”.

The Kremlin dismissed the claims.

“I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the BBC.

Russian ambassador to the Netherlands, Alexander Shulgin, said it was a “blatant lie” that Moscow was hampering the investigation.