Inspectors Examine Site of Suspected Chemical Attack in Syria

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/world/middleeast/syria-opcw-douma.html

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The international monitoring group investigating a suspected chemical weapons attack on a Syrian town said its experts had finally been able to visit the site on Saturday after repeated delays and they collected samples for analysis.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said its experts had reached the Damascus suburb of Douma a week after they arrived in Syria.

“The O.P.C.W. will evaluate the situation and consider future steps including another possible visit to Douma,” the organization said, adding that its experts had taken “samples for analysis in connection with allegations of chemical weapons.”

Western nations have accused President Bashar al-Assad of Syria of an April 7 chemical weapons attack on Douma that killed 43 people. The United States, Britain and France carried out airstrikes a week later on military targets to punish Mr. Assad for what they called his repeated violations of the treaty banning chemical weapons.

Mr. Assad and Russia, his main ally in the seven-year-old Syrian conflict, have denied the accusation and offered alternative explanations, saying rebels carried out the attack or that it was a hoax.

The inability of the chemical weapons inspectors to visit the site for days because of security concerns raised Western suspicions of a possible effort to cleanse evidence of chemical munitions.

They inspectors are tasked with determining whether chemical weapons were used, not who was responsible.

The Foreign Ministry of Russia said Saturday that Russian and Syrian forces had ensured safe passage for the O.P.C.W. group and suggested that any delays in their visit had not been caused by them.

“We consider such delays in a notable case like that, for whatever reasons, to be unacceptable, since the security of the O.P.C.W. staff was ensured not only by the Syrian side, but also by the command of the Russian military forces in the Syrian Arab Republic,” the ministry said a statement.