Syria rejects OPCW watchdog investigation report claiming it used chemical weapons in 2018

Syria on April 14 rejected the results of an investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). OPCW has released the second report of Identification on April 12.. In the investigation, the team found “reasonable grounds to believe” that a Syrian air force helicopter dropped a chlorine cylinder on a Syrian town in 2018. Syrian Foreign Ministry has denied these claims and condemned the report.

Syria condemns OPCW report

OPCW has released the findings of the second report by the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) on April 12. OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team has concluded that Syrian government armed forces were responsible for a gas attack in 2018. The OPCW investigation team in the latest report said that they found evidence that a military helicopter belonging to the Tiger Forces of Syrian Arab Air Force dropped at least one chlorine cylinder on eastern Saraqeb town in northern Syria on 4 February 2018. The cylinder ruptured and released chlorine over a large area, affecting 12 named individuals.  

The cylinder ruptured and released chlorine over a large area, affecting 12 named individuals.  Those affected all survived, said the statement.

Last year, the OPCW investigation team said that the Syrian Arab Air Force was responsible for attacks using chlorine and the nerve agent sarin in March 2017 in the town of Latamneh. The Syrian Foreign Ministry has denied the use of toxic gases in Saraqeb "or any other city or village in Syria". The Syrian government has denied the claims of the report.

The investigation team was established after Russia blocked the extension of a joint investigation mechanism set up by the UN and OPCW in 2015. That team has accused Syria of using chlorine in at least two attacks in 2014 and 2015. They have also said that Syria dropped sarin in an aerial attack on Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people.

(Image Credit: The Associated Press)