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HAGUE / GENEVA (Reuters) – The global chemical weapons agency is to investigate a gas attack in Aleppo, Syria, which has reportedly injured some 100 people, the agency's chief said on Monday.
PHOTO FILE: A woman breathes through an oxygen mask after what the Syrian media has described as a possible toxic gas attack in Aleppo, Syria, on November 24, 2018. Photo taken on November 24, 2018. SANA / Handout via REUTERS
The Syrian government, which accused the rebels of having fired chlorine, asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send an investigative mission. in the city, said Fernando Arias, the new president of the OPCW.
Arias said that the OPCW had asked the United Nations Security Department to say it was safe to deploy a team to Aleppo, where government forces chased the rebels out of the last part of the territory. They controlled.
US war crimes investigators, who have a permanent mandate to examine all human rights violations committed in Syria, are also gathering information and asking for evidence, an official said in a statement. Geneva.
"Once something concrete and credible meets their standard of proof, they will be able to report publicly," he said. The panel attributed to the government 33 documented documented attacks since 2013, while the perpetrators of six others have not been sufficiently identified.
Spokesperson of the World Health Organization, Tarik Jasarevic, said the WHO had "received unconfirmed reports that patients arriving in health facilities in Aleppo would have symptoms that could be compatible with exposure to chemical agents ".
With the new powers granted in June, the OPCW will not only be able to determine whether a chemical weapon attack has occurred, but also to blame anyone. This responsibility lay with a joint mission between the United Kingdom and the OPCW until Russia blocked a US Security Council resolution to extend its mandate a year ago.
Previous investigations by the joint mission revealed that Syrian government forces had used chlorine and sarin several times during the civil war, while the radical Islamist militant group State State had previously used sulfur mustard gas. According to official reports, no other rebel group used prohibited toxic ammunition.
A health official in Aleppo said the victims had breathing difficulties, eye inflammation and other symptoms suggesting the use of chlorine gas.
Chlorine is a widely available industrial chemical, but its use as a weapon is banned internationally. Investigators have concluded in previous reports that Syrian government forces used helicopters to drop barrels filled with chlorine into rebel-held areas.
Reports of the Aleppo attack eclipsed OPCW meetings in The Hague, where 193 member countries met to discuss the agency's future.
On the same day that a ceremony was held to honor the victims of such banned weapons, the major powers exchanged their allegations about who was responsible for the resurgence of their use in Syria.
Report by Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie Nebehay; Edited by Kevin Liffey
