Russia backs independent Syria probe

Move comes as president Bashar Assad claims sarin gas attack was “fabricated”

Russia has agreed to support an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Mr Erdogan’s office said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to back a probe by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

A spokesman said the two leaders held a telephone conversation yesterday during which the Turkish leader stressed that the use of chemical weapons “is the greatest crime against humanity”.

A statement said: “The two leaders agreed that the attack in question be investigated by the OPCW, which is an independent organisation whose legitimacy is recognised.”

Mr Erdogan and Mr Putin also discussed peace efforts for Syria and their joint efforts to extend a ceasefire agreement to the whole of the country.

President Bashar Assad said yesterday a chemical attack on a rebel-held town earlier this month that was widely blamed on his forces was a “fabrication”.

“Definitely, 100% for us, it’s fabrication”, Mr Assad told Agence France-Presse in his first comments since a US missile strike on a Syrian air base in response to the chemical attack.

“Our impression is that the West, mainly the United States, is hand-in-glove with the terrorists. They fabricated the whole story in order to have a pretext for the attack.”

Meanwhile, a misdirected airstrike by the US-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in Syria, the US military said.

US Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, for a strike intended to target IS militants south of their Tabqa stronghold, near the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa.

The strike on Tuesday hit an SDF position instead, killing 18.

The SDF meanwhile announced the launch of a fourth phase of their campaign to capture Raqqa, a Euphrates River city home to 300,000 people.

The SDF, with US-led air and ground support, has surrounded Tabqa, some 25 miles south west of Raqqa. They say they are working to clear Islamic State militants out of Jalab Valley, north of Raqqa.

Picture: Getty. Syria’s foreign minister Walid Muallem, left, and Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov met for talks yesterday when Mr Muallem reiterated a denial that the chemical weapon attack was the Syrian government’s work.