The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Wednesday said that chlorine gas “was likely used as a chemical weapon” in an attack in the town of Saraqib in the northern Idlib province in February.
In a statement, the watchdog said that its investigators had “determined that chlorine was released from cylinders” in the Ali Talil neighborhood of Saraqib in the northern province of Idlib on February 4.
The organization found two cylinders and an analysis found both had previously contained chlorine. It also found an “unusual presence of chlorine in the local environment.”
Investigators also talked to local witnesses and patients at hospitals who had shown symptoms of exposure to chlorine, OPCW added.
The latest findings came weeks after the US-British-French missile strikes that hit Assad regime targets in response to its repeated use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said: “I strongly condemn the use of toxic chemicals as weapons by anyone, for any reason, and in any circumstances. Such acts contradict the unequivocal prohibition against chemical weapons enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
Another OPCW investigative team is currently assessing evidence from the town of Douma to determine whether an April 7 attack that left dozens of people dead used chlorine and sarin gas. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
