Investigation finds it likely Syrian military used sarin and chlorine chemical weapons against rebels

Daoud Kuttab, dpa

Investigators appointed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) believe the Syrian military dropped a chlorine bomb in 2018 on a residential rebel-held area in north-west Syria, the chemical weapons watchdog said on Monday.

“The report reached the conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that, at approximately 21:22 on 4 February 2018, a military helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force under the control of the Tiger Forces hit eastern Saraqib by dropping at least one cylinder,” it said.

The report added that the cylinder ruptured and released chlorine over a large area, affecting 12 named individuals.

This is the second report released by the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team, which is responsible for identifying the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

In the first report released last year, investigators focused on incidents in the then rebel-controlled city of Ltamenah in March 2017. It stated that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that the Syrian air force had used sarin and chlorine as a chemical weapon.

There has been no immediate comment from Syria on Monday’s report.

The Syrian government and its main backer, Russia, have consistently rejected the use of chemical weapons.

The Syrian government agreed in 2013 to give up its chemical weapons in a Russian-brokered deal, after hundreds of people were killed in an alleged poison gas attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus.

There have since been repeated allegations of chemical attacks by the Syrian military.

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