Syria: Samples taken from site of alleged gas attack

BEIRUT: Investigators from the global chemical arms watchdog collected samples on Saturday from the site of a suspected gas attack in Syria, days after security concerns delayed their probe.

Gruesome footage of the alleged toxic attack on April 7 in the town of Douma, just outside Damascus, horrified the world and prompted unprecedented Western strikes on Syrian military installations. Just hours after the joint missile strikes, a team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) arrived in Syria to investigate the claims.

But they had been unable to access Douma itself, which fell from rebel hands into joint Syrian and Russian control after the suspected chemical attack.

United Nations security experts deployed to the town on Tuesday to check it was safe, but were forced to pull out after an explosion went off and they were shot at. Investigators finally collected evidence from the site for the first time, the OPCW said.

“The samples collected will be transported to the OPCW Laboratory in Rijswijk and then dispatched for analysis to the OPCW’s designated labs,” the body said in a statement, adding it could plan another visit.

Russia’s foreign ministry had earlier announced the inspectors reached Douma after guarantees by Syria and its own forces, and said it expected them to carry out an “impartial investigation”. Moscow, a key ally of President Bashar al-Assad, has said its own probe into the events in Douma found no traces of chemical use.

Assad’s government, too, has repeatedly denied using toxic weapons, and accused the West of “fabricating” the claim to justify bombing Syria.

REBELS OUSTED FROM NORTHEAST OF CAPITAL

Syrian rebels began withdrawing from an enclave northeast of Damascus on Saturday and will go to northern Syria, state TV and a rebel official said, in a surrender agreement that marks another victory for Assad.

The withdrawal will restore state control over the eastern Qalamoun enclave, some 40 km (from Damascus.

Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, is seeking to wipe out the last few rebel enclaves near Damascus, building on momentum from the defeat of the insurgency in eastern Ghouta, the last major opposition stronghold.