SYRIA PROBE
Experts at site of suspected chem weapon attack
ALMOST TWO weeks after a suspected chemical weapons attack killed nearly 40 people in Syria, a team of experts arrived Saturday at one of the sites of the alleged attack in the city of Douma.
“A special OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) mission for finding traces of chemical weapons left for the city of Douma to the place of suspected use of toxic chemicals on April 7,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, according to a report from the official Tass agency.
The OPCW later confirmed in a statement its team had reached one of the sites to collect samples.
The nine-person team’s mandate is to determine if a chemical attack took place and what chemical agent was used. It cannot apportion blame.
In Douma, the experts will have to gather biological samples from victims, both survivors and fatalities, as well as environmental evidence, said George Famini, a former U.S. official and now chemical safety consultant,
Gathering environmental evidence will be especially complicated, Famini said. Both agents believed to be used in the attack degrade over time, making tests for the actual agent difficult, he said.
The team had been waiting for a week to enter Douma, because of what Russian and Syrian authorities said were security issues.
The city was the recent focal point of a large-scale government campaign aimed at routing armed rebel factions from eastern Ghouta, the suburban areas ringing the capital.
During the final phase of that assault, opposition activists and medical workers contend troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad bombed two areas of Douma with chemical-filled barrel bombs, metal barrels packed with explosives and detritus that the government has dropped often on rebel-held areas.
Medics said hundreds of patients exhibited symptoms including skin discoloration, burning eyes and foaming at the mouth, indications of exposure to what they said was chlorine gas, a chemical poison, and sarin, a nerve agent. Both Syria and Russia, Assad’s top international backer, dismissed the claims.