Watchdog: Sarin traces found in Syria Attack

Chemical ID’D after March attack that hurt 50

THE HAGUE, Netherlands —

The global chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday it found traces of sarin following an attack in northern Syria in late March, days before a deadly strike using the same nerve agent in another Syrian town.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that tests found traces of “sarin or sarin-related chemicals” in Ltamenah after a March 30 attack that injured 50 people. No deaths were reported. The organization didn’t release further details.

Days later, an April 4 attack in the nearby town of Khan Sheikhoun killed nearly 100 people. Syria has denied responsibility for that attack. An Opcw-united Nations probe is expected to apportion blame later this month for the

Khan Sheikhoun attack.

The OPCW said that the work of its fact-finding mission, which is probing chemical attacks in Syria, continues.

“Once the FFM concludes its assessment of the incident, a report will be made available to States Parties and shared with the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism,” the OPCW said in a statement.

The organization’s director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu, briefed member states on the latest findings earlier this week.

Syria joined the OPCW in 2013, under threat of possible U.S. military strikes in the aftermath of a chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb. Washington and U.S. allies accused the Syrian government of being responsible for the attack, but Damascus blamed rebels.

The United States’ U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said in a statement Wednesday that Uzumcu had “reported yet another instance of the use of the deadly chemical agent sarin, in a part of the country under routine attack by the Syrian regime.”