Syria says chemical weapons inspectors are at Douma
BEIRUT — A team of international chemical weapons specialists entered the Syrian city of Douma on Tuesday, state media said, in a bid to inspect the former rebel bastion hit this month with a suspected poison gas attack by the government.
The inspectors with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, whose arrival in Douma was not immediately confirmed by U.S. officials, are tasked with collecting samples from the site and speaking to witnesses. The organization's mandate with the United Nations means it can only determine if a chemical attack occurred, not assign blame.
The April 7 attack, which activists say killed more than 40 people, ratcheted up tension between Western nations and Damascus, spurring the U.S., Britain and France to launch airstrikes on what were said to be the manufacturing sites of Syria's chemical arsenal. Officials in Damascus and Russia, a key ally to Syrian President Bashar Assad, decline responsibility for the Douma attack and have accused others of staging it.
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said Monday that nine inspectors had assembled in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, before making their way to Damascus.
But, he said, the fact-finding mission could not deploy to Douma, less than six miles northeast of the capital, until what Syrian and Russian authorities called “pending security issues” could be worked out.
Russian and Syrian troops as well as journalists had already made their way into the area in the days following the government's takeover of Douma on Saturday.
The delay kicked up a flurry of accusations from Western powers, including Kenneth Ward, the U.S. ambassador to the OPCW, who accused Russia of interfering with The Hague-based organization's attempt to conduct an effective investigation.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that U.S. officials could not independently confirm that the OPCW inspectors had arrived at the attack site. A delay would “further degrade” evidence, she said.
“The Syrians and the Russians, their goal is to cover up,” Nauert said.
The French foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday that it was “very likely that proof and essential elements are disappearing from this site.”
But Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Tuesday called on “Western countries that staged the illegitimate strike on Syria to stop manipulating public opinion and meddling with the work of international organizations,” according to Russian state news agency Tass.
“I don't see why the French foreign ministry is speaking for the OPCW and its inspectors,” she said.
Earlier, Russian officials had claimed the attack in the Ghouta area of Damascus had been staged by Britain, a charge the nation's OPCW envoy Peter Wilson denied as ludicrous.
Russia's military said it had found a rebel chemical laboratory and warehouse in Douma, according to Tass.
Opposition-aligned medics and rescue workers contend than Syrian loyalist troops deployed barrel bombs filled with chemical weapons on April 7 in Douma, the largest city in the one-time rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta.
The munitions, normally filled with explosives and metal detritus and dropped from helicopters, struck buildings where residents had taken shelter, killing 43 people and leaving some 500 others with symptoms including breathing difficulties, skin discoloration, eye irritation and foaming at the mouth.
After the attack, opposition factions accepted an evacuation deal out of Douma that gave the government control of eastern Ghouta after a bloody, six-year stalemate.
Western nations insisted after what was said to be analysis of opensource evidence, including videos uploaded by opposition activists, that chemical weapons had been deployed and that Syrian government troops were to blame.
Last week, they launched a barrage of missiles on a number of sites, including research centers and primary airfields, around Damascus and the central Syrian province of Homs.