THE HAGUE: The world's chemical weapons watchdog said on Friday (Mar 1) that chlorine was used against the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma in 2018, in a long-awaited final report on the deadly attack.

The report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was based on a visit by inspectors to the site of the attack which witnesses said killed 43 people.

Western powers led by the United States blamed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the incident and unleashed air strikes on military installations in response.

The Hague-based watchdog said two cylinders likely containing chlorine smashed into a housing block in the town.

The OPCW report said that there were "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine."

It said however that it found no evidence of the use of nerve agents in Douma, which had been previously alleged by some parties in the conflict.

The findings confirmed an interim OPCW report released last July saying that traces of chlorine were found.

The report does not place blame because it was not in the OPCW's remit at the time, although the watchdog has since been given powers to investigate responsibility for all chemical attacks in Syria back to 2014.

Russia, which backs Assad, rejected the report and said the attack was "staged" by Syrian rescue volunteers known as the White Helmets.

"In spite of all the evidence presented by Russia, Syria, and even British journalists that the Douma incident is no more than 'White helmets' staged provocation, Technical Secretariat of OPCW states in today's report that chlorine was used in Douma as a chemical weapon," the Russian Embassy in The Hague tweeted.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt however said Syria should now honour its 2013 vow to destroy all its chemical weapons, made after 1,400 people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in what the UN said was an attack using the nerve agent sarin.

"Confirmed today by @OPCW - chemical weapons WERE used in Douma, Syria in April 2018. The Assad regime must cease, declare and destroy its chemical weapon programme. We remain committed to seeking justice for the victims," Hunt tweeted.

A team of OPCW inspectors took more than 100 samples from seven sites in Douma when they gained access to the town after being denied access for several weeks.

The OPCW said it reached its conclusions based on "witnesses' testimonies, environmental and biomedical samples analysis results, toxicological and ballistic analyses from experts".

The report said "two yellow industrial cylinders dedicated for pressurised gas" were found, one of which had landed on top of the housing block and crashed through it.

It said it was "possible that the cylinders were the source of the substances containing reactive chlorine."

The OPCW said witnesses told the team there were "43 decedents related to the alleged chemical incident, most of whom were seen in videos and photos strewn on the floor of multiple levels of an apartment building and in front of the same building."

The videos "indicate exposure to an inhalational irritant or toxic substance" and show burns to the eyes and foaming from the mouth, although it could not directly link those to any specific substance.

The watchdog also rejected claims by the Syrian regime that the gas came from an alleged rebel chemical weapons facility and storehouse in the area.

"From the analysis of the information gathered during the on-site visits to the warehouse and facility suspected of producing chemical weapons, there was no indication of either facility being involved in their manufacture," it said.

The report will now go to the UN Security Council.

The OPCW has been at the forefront of investigating chemical attacks during the eight-year Syrian civil war, with investigators previously confirming the use of "chlorine, sulphur mustard, and sarin as chemical weapons" in other incidents.

But the watchdog is now riven by political divisions between Russia and the West, particularly over its new powers to attribute blame.

A nerve agent attack on a Russian ex-spy in the English city of Salisbury in 2018, which the West blamed on Moscow, has further poisoned relations. </s> BEIRUT: An alleged chemical attack in Syria's rebel-held Douma has sparked international outrage, with Washington warning on Sunday (Apr 8) of possible military action, while Damascus and Moscow said the reports were mere "fabrications".

Syria's White Helmets, who act as first responders in rebel-held areas of Syria, said the attack took place late on Saturday using "poisonous chlorine gas".

"More than 500 cases - the majority of whom are women and children - were brought to local medical centres with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent," according to a joint statement issued by the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and the White Helmets.

Patients showed signs of "respiratory distress, central cyanosis, excessive oral foaming, corneal burns, and the emission of chlorine-like odour", it said.

The statement said civil defence volunteers had found 42 casualties dead in their homes "with similar clinical symptoms of excessive oral foaming, cyanosis, and corneal burns". Six others had died while receiving treatment.

Footage posted online by the White Helmets, which was not possible to verify, showed victims with yellowed skin crumpled on the ground and foaming at the mouth.

Douma is the last remaining opposition-held town in Eastern Ghouta, once the rebels' main bastion outside Damascus but now ravaged by a seven-week regime assault.

Since Feb 18, Syrian and Russian forces have waged a fierce military onslaught.

WHO WAS BEHIND IT?

While no one has yet provided evidence of its involvement, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons in the country's seven-year civil war.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the regime carried out a wave of air strikes on Douma on Friday and Saturday that killed nearly 100 people, including many who suffered breathing difficulties.

Syria and its Russian ally denounced the claims as "fabrications", with Russia warning of potential "dire consequences" if they were used as a pretext for military action.

HOW HAS THE WORLD REACTED?

US President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay".

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," Trump wrote on Twitter. "President (Vladimir) Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay."

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was "particularly alarmed" by the attack, adding that if confirmed, the use of chemical weapons would be "abhorrent".

Britain called for an investigation into what it said were the "deeply disturbing" reports, and Turkey, which has backed rebels against Assad, said it had a "strong suspicion" the Syrian president was to blame.

France has repeatedly said that evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria could prompt military action and said Sunday it would "do its duty" following the latest allegations. It called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting.

Pope Francis described the allegations as "terrible news", saying: "Nothing, nothing can justify the use of such devices of extermination against defenceless people and populations."

WILL MILITARY ACTION BE TAKEN?

White House security adviser Tom Bossert refused to rule out US military action in response to the alleged chemical strike. "I wouldn't take anything off the table," he said.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the reports, if confirmed, "are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community."

Prominent Republican senator Lindsey Graham warned Trump that a failure to act now could leave him in a weakened posture internationally.

"It's a defining moment in his presidency," Graham said.

A chemical attack with the nerve agent sarin in the Eastern Ghouta enclave in August 2013 killed 1,429 people, including children, the US says.

Sarin was also detected in an April 2017 attack on the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhun that killed more than 80 people. The agent was released after an air strike.

Helicopter-dropped chlorine-filled munitions have been increasingly used by the regime as the conflict has dragged on, according to a 2017 report by Human Rights Watch. </s> Chlorine was used in an attack on the Syrian town of Douma in April 2018, although there was no evidence of nerve agent, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog said Friday in a final report on the incident.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said there were “reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine.”

The long-awaited findings confirmed an interim report released in July on the attack, which medics said killed about 40 people when a cylinder containing poison gas landed on the roof of a housing block.

The report does not place blame because it was not in the OPCW’s remit at the time, although the watchdog has since been given powers to investigate responsibility for all chemical attacks in Syria back to 2014.

A team of OPCW inspectors took more than 100 samples from some seven sites in Douma when they gained access to the town several weeks after the attack.

The team also interviewed witnesses and carried out a series of tests including toxicological and ballistic analysis, said the watchdog based in The Hague.

Russia, which backs the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, swiftly rejected the OPCW report, saying that it was “staged” by Syrian rescue volunteers known as the White Helmets.

“In spite of all the evidence presented by Russia, Syria, and even British journalists that the Douma incident is no more than ‘White helmets’ staged provocation, Technical Secretariat of OPCW states in today’s report that chlorine was used in Douma as a chemical weapon,” the Russian Embassy in The Hague tweeted. </s> International experts from the global agency for the monitoring of chemical weapons set off to the site of a suspected April 7 gas attack in Syria on Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Inspectors from the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were delayed for one week in Damascus before they could visit the town, just minutes’ away from the capital, where the alleged attack occurred.

The town of Douma was at the time under rebel control and facing a ferocious government air and ground assault. Militants gave up the town days after the alleged attack.

The U.S., France, and Britain blamed the Syrian government for the attack, and struck suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities one week later.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied responsibility for the attack.

Russian ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the delays to the OPCW team were “unacceptable,” in a statement Saturday.

A U.N. security team touring Douma on Tuesday came under small arms and explosives fire, leading the OPCW to postpone its visit.

The U.S. and Britain accused the Syrian government and Russia of delaying the investigation to stage a cover up.

Images that emerged from Douma in the hours after the attack showed lifeless bodies collapsed in crowded rooms, some with foam around their noses and mouths.

Medical workers and activists in Douma at the time said at least 40 people were killed.

Thousands of people — rebels and civilians — left Douma on buses to north Syria in the days after the attack, believing they could not reconcile with the government after it took over the town. North Syria is divided between opposition, Turkish, and al-Qaida control.

The evacuations were the latest in a string of population transfers around the Syrian capital that have displaced more than 60,000 people as the government reconsolidates control after seven years of civil war.

U.N. officials and human rights groups say the evacuations amount to a forced population displacement that may be a war crime.

On Saturday, rebels began evacuating three towns in the eastern Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside, state TV reported.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said several buses left the towns of Ruhaiba, Jayroud, and al-Nasriya carrying hundreds of rebels and their families to opposition territory in north Syria.

The station said there could be 3,200 rebels leaving three towns on Saturday. It said the evacuations will continue for three days.

Syrian government forces will take over the towns once the departures are complete. </s> The global chemical weapons watchdog said March 1 that chlorine was used against the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma last year, in a long-awaited final report on the attack that killed 43 people.

 

 The report by the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was based on a visit by a fact-finding mission to the site of the attack.

 

 The mission's mandate does not include laying blame, but Western powers led by the United States said the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the attack and launched air strikes on Syrian military installations in response.

 

 The OPCW said two cylinders likely containing chlorine smashed into a housing block in the town.

 

 The report said there were "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine."

 

 It said, however, that it found no evidence of the use of nerve agents in Douma, which had been previously alleged by some parties in the conflict.

 

 The Russian Embassy in The Hague rejected the report, claiming the attack was "staged" by Syrian rescue volunteers known as the White Helmets.

 

 Russia is Assad's main international backer.

 

 The report will now go to the UN Security Council.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP </s> AMSTERDAM, April 11 (Reuters) - An emergency session of the global chemical weapons watchdog will be convened on Monday to discuss the attack in Syria’s Douma in which dozens of people are believed to have been killed with poison gas.

Members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will gather at 10 a.m. (0800 GMT) on April 16 to discuss “alleged use of chemical weapons” in Syria, a statement said. (Reporting by Anthony Deutsch Editing by Robin Pomeroy) </s> BEIRUT (AP) - International experts from the global agency for the monitoring of chemical weapons set off to the site of a suspected April 7 gas attack in Syria on Saturday, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

Inspectors from the Organization of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons were delayed for one week in Damascus before they could visit the town, just minutes’ away from the capital, where the alleged attack occurred.

The town of Douma was at the time under rebel control and facing a ferocious government air and ground assault. Militants gave up the town days after the alleged attack.

The U.S., France, and Britain blamed the Syrian government for the attack, and struck suspected Syrian chemical weapons facilities one week later.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia denied responsibility for the attack.

Russian ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the delays to the OPCW team were “unacceptable,” in a statement Saturday.

A U.N. security team touring Douma on Tuesday came under small arms and explosives fire, leading the OPCW to postpone its visit.

The U.S. and Britain accused the Syrian government and Russia of delaying the investigation to stage a cover up.

Images that emerged from Douma in the hours after the attack showed lifeless bodies collapsed in crowded rooms, some with foam around their noses and mouths.

Medical workers and activists in Douma at the time said at least 40 people were killed.

Thousands of people - rebels and civilians - left Douma on buses to north Syria in the days after the attack, believing they could not reconcile with the government after it took over the town. North Syria is divided between opposition, Turkish, and al-Qaida control.

The evacuations were the latest in a string of population transfers around the Syrian capital that have displaced more than 60,000 people as the government reconsolidates control after seven years of civil war.

U.N. officials and human rights groups say the evacuations amount to a forced population displacement that may be a war crime.

On Saturday, rebels began evacuating three towns in the eastern Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside, state TV reported.

State-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said several buses left the towns of Ruhaiba, Jayroud, and al-Nasriya carrying hundreds of rebels and their families to opposition territory in north Syria.

The station said there could be 3,200 rebels leaving three towns on Saturday. It said the evacuations will continue for three days.

Syrian government forces will take over the towns once the departures are complete. </s> THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog said Friday it found "reasonable grounds" that chlorine was used as a weapon in an attack on the Syrian town of Douma last year.

The finding was contained in a detailed report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' fact finding mission that investigated the attack on April 7, 2018. Medical workers said at the time that the attack killed more than 40 people.

In a statement, the OPCW said the mission visited Douma, analyzed samples taken from the scene and from people affected, interviewed witnesses and studied toxicological and ballistics analyses.

The data, it said, provided "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon" took place.

"This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine."

The Fact Finding Mission's mandate does not include laying blame for the attack.

The United States, Britain and France blamed Syrian government forces for the attack and launched punitive airstrikes. Syria denied responsibility.

Douma was the final target of the government's sweeping campaign to seize back control of the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus from rebels after seven years of revolt. Militants gave up the town days after the alleged attack.

The OPCW said the report has been sent to the United Nations Security Council.

Russia, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, also rejected claims that Syria was responsible for the attack and even brought what it called witnesses to The Hague to describe their experiences. </s> Inspectors from the world's chemical arms watchdog arrived Saturday in the Syrian town of Douma, where an alleged chemical attack took place earlier this month, the Russian foreign ministry said.

A team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have been in Syria for a week but had not travelled to the city because of security fears.

"According to the information we have, the special OPCW mission... arrived on the morning of April 21 in the city of Douma at the sites suspected of having toxic substances," the ministry said in a statement.

"The security of the OPCW has been guaranteed not only by the Syrian side but also by the Russian command in Syria."

Dozens were killed in the suspected gas attack in Douma, near Damascus, on April 7, widely blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's forces, according to emergency workers.

The Syrian government has consistently denied using chemical arms and invited the OPCW to investigate.

The Russian ministry said it expects the OPCW to carry out an "impartial investigation".

"Especially since this is the first visit to the scene of a suspected chemical incident in the history of the so-called Syrian chemical record," it said.
The death toll from yesterday's suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria, rises to at least 70, according to the White Helmets group. The Syrian government and Russia deny the allegations of a chemical attack.