Agency blames Syria for gas attack

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog said Friday that its investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” Syria’s air force dropped two cylinders containing chlorine gas on the city of Douma in April 2018, killing 43 people.

A report by a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons offered the latest confirmation that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons during his country’s grinding civil war.

“The use of chemical weapons in Douma — and anywhere — is unacceptable and a breach of international law,” OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias said.

Syrian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings. Syria joined the OPCW in 2013 under pressure from the international community after being blamed for another deadly chemical weapons attack, but it does not recognize the investigation team’s authority and has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.

Bringing perpetrators in Syria to justice remains a long way off. Syria’s ally Russia has, in the past, blocked efforts by the U.N. Security Council to order an International Criminal Court investigation in Syria.

“The world now knows the facts. It is up to the international community to take action, at the OPCW and beyond,” said Arias, a veteran Spanish diplomat.

Syrian authorities refused the investigation team access to the sites of the chlorine attacks. The investigators interviewed dozens of witnesses and studied the blood and urine of survivors as well as samples of soil and building materials, according to the watchdog agency.