Al Jazeera News :
An international inquiry has blamed Syrian government forces for a third chemical weapons attack, according to a confidential report to the United Nations Security Council.
The report, prepared by a joined committee set up by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and seen by Reuters news agency, was presented to the security council on Friday.
The UN experts behind the report said Syrian forces were responsible for a toxic gas attack in the village of Qmenas in Idlib province on March 16, 2015. The committee was unable to determine who was behind two other gas attacks – against Binnish in Idlib province in March 2015 and Kafr Zita in Hama province in April 2014. “A joint investigative mechanism was set up by the international chemical weapons watchdog and the UN to investigate reports of chemical attacks in Syria,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said.
“Now in its fourth and final report it says it found a third chemical attack carried out by the Syrian army.”
The UN-led joint investigative mechanism (JIM) reported in late August that Syrian government forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters had used mustard gas on the battlefield.
Of the nine total alleged chemical attacks it is considering in its ongoing probe, the JIM has now attributed three to the Syrian government and one to ISIL.
In its fourth report, investigators concluded that there is now “sufficient information” that attack on Qmenas, near Idlib city, “was caused by a Syrian Arab Armed Forces helicopter dropping a device from a high altitude, which hit the ground and released the toxic substance that affected the population”.
Investigators say the substance may have been chlorine gas, based on the symptoms the victims displayed.
In Kafr Zita, however, the JIM could not confirm that the Syrian army had used barrel bombs to dump toxic substances because “the remnants of the device allegedly used had been removed”, the report said.
Investigators also said that a “canister with traces of chlorine” was found in Binnish, though the container could not be “linked to any of several incident locations identified”.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons adviser to NGOs working in Syria and Iraq, welcomed the findings but said the report should had been made released earlier.
“The fact that it took 18 months for these results to be published is the real issue, and I think the UN need to look at that because having that amount of time before taking action is just not realistic in the current day,” he told Al Jazeera.
Chlorine’s use as a weapon is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids.
The inquiry’s mandate was extended until October 31 to finish the probe.
“Now this report will go to the security council which will discuss it in a close session in the coming week and certainly there is going to be a very heated discussion,” Hanna said.
“After JIM’s previous report the US and Russia agreed that they would agree between themselves what action to take next.
“But other members of the council, in particular Britain and France, will likely now be pushing for far more drastic measures to be taken by the security council and certainly there will be intense debate about what the security council is going to do next,” our correspondent said.
An international inquiry has blamed Syrian government forces for a third chemical weapons attack, according to a confidential report to the United Nations Security Council.
The report, prepared by a joined committee set up by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and seen by Reuters news agency, was presented to the security council on Friday.
The UN experts behind the report said Syrian forces were responsible for a toxic gas attack in the village of Qmenas in Idlib province on March 16, 2015. The committee was unable to determine who was behind two other gas attacks – against Binnish in Idlib province in March 2015 and Kafr Zita in Hama province in April 2014. “A joint investigative mechanism was set up by the international chemical weapons watchdog and the UN to investigate reports of chemical attacks in Syria,” Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said.
“Now in its fourth and final report it says it found a third chemical attack carried out by the Syrian army.”
The UN-led joint investigative mechanism (JIM) reported in late August that Syrian government forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters had used mustard gas on the battlefield.
Of the nine total alleged chemical attacks it is considering in its ongoing probe, the JIM has now attributed three to the Syrian government and one to ISIL.
In its fourth report, investigators concluded that there is now “sufficient information” that attack on Qmenas, near Idlib city, “was caused by a Syrian Arab Armed Forces helicopter dropping a device from a high altitude, which hit the ground and released the toxic substance that affected the population”.
Investigators say the substance may have been chlorine gas, based on the symptoms the victims displayed.
In Kafr Zita, however, the JIM could not confirm that the Syrian army had used barrel bombs to dump toxic substances because “the remnants of the device allegedly used had been removed”, the report said.
Investigators also said that a “canister with traces of chlorine” was found in Binnish, though the container could not be “linked to any of several incident locations identified”.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons adviser to NGOs working in Syria and Iraq, welcomed the findings but said the report should had been made released earlier.
“The fact that it took 18 months for these results to be published is the real issue, and I think the UN need to look at that because having that amount of time before taking action is just not realistic in the current day,” he told Al Jazeera.
Chlorine’s use as a weapon is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria joined in 2013. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs and can kill by burning lungs and drowning victims in the resulting body fluids.
The inquiry’s mandate was extended until October 31 to finish the probe.
“Now this report will go to the security council which will discuss it in a close session in the coming week and certainly there is going to be a very heated discussion,” Hanna said.
“After JIM’s previous report the US and Russia agreed that they would agree between themselves what action to take next.
“But other members of the council, in particular Britain and France, will likely now be pushing for far more drastic measures to be taken by the security council and certainly there will be intense debate about what the security council is going to do next,” our correspondent said.
