French inquiry blames sarin attack on Assad

FRENCH intelligence services have concluded the Syrian regime was behind a chemical attack three weeks ago that left scores of villagers dead.

It was the first international investigation to assign blame for the sarin gas attack on April 4 at the town of Khan Shaykhun, in Idlib province, which killed 86 and injured hundreds more. The attack prompted the US to launch a missile strike on a Syrian air base.

French military and foreign intelli- gence investigators – acting independently of the UN’s Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – tested blood samples from victims which, according to a declassified report released yesterday, tested positive for both sarin and hexamine.

Use of hexamine as a stabiliser is characteristic of sarin produced by Bashar al-Assad’s regime and was found in a previous chemical attack it launched against Saraqib in the north.

“We know, from a certain source, that the process of fabrication of the samples taken is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories,” Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s foreign minister, told reporters. “This method is the signature of the regime ... we know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison.”

“The French intelligence services consider that only Bashar al-Assad and some of his most influential entourage can give the order to use chemical weapons,” the six-page report said, pointing blame directly at the president.