Watchdog says chlorine was probably used in attack on Syrian town

CHLORINE WAS probably used as a weapon in the Syrian town of Saraqeb in early February, according to the international chemical weapons watchdog.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons released details in its latest report on poison gas being unleashed in Syria’s civil war. The OPCW is not mandated to apportion blame for the attack.

The organisation said its factfinding mission probing alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria “determined that chlorine was released from cylinders by mechanical impact in the Al Talil neighbourhood of Saraqib”. The mission is also investigating allegations that poison gas was used in Douma, near the capital Damascus, in a deadly April 7 attack. It has not yet issued a report on that attack.

On February 4, the White Helmets search-and-rescue group and a medical charity reported that several people suffered breathing difficulties after a suspected chlorine gas attack on Saraqeb, days after the Trump administration accused President Bashar Assad’s government of producing and using “new kinds of weapons” to deliver poisonous gases. Damascus denied the White House’s charges.

The Syrian American Medical Society said its hospitals in Idlib treated 11 patients for suspected chlorine gas poisoning.

OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu harshly criticised the chemical attack, saying: “I strongly condemn the continued use of toxic chemicals as weapons by anyone, for any reason, and in any circumstances.

“Such acts contradict the unequivocal prohibition against chemical weapons enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention.”