OPCW Reaffirms Assad Used Chemical Weapons

A UN-backed chemical weapons watchdog has offered more proof that the Syrian regime led by President Bashar al-Assad has employed chlorine gas during the ongoing civil war. In the latest report released by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the agency says “with a high degree of confidence” chlorine gas was used in at least three villages during a conflict last year. The 117-page report, drafted by a fact-finding mission and obtained by multiple news outlets, also cites witness accounts saying barrel bombs filled with toxic chemicals have been dropped. The mission was set up in April this year to examine allegations of use of chemical weapons during the raging battle in Syria. This is the third report by the group and is consistent with earlier documents but throws more light on the events. “32 witnesses saw or heard sound of helicopters as bombs struck; 29 smelled chlorine. Only Syrian regime uses helos [helicopters],” US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power wrote on her Twitter account. The Syrian Coalition calls on the OPCW “to refer Assad’s chemical weapons file to the International Criminal Court (ICC), along with the files we submitted in this regard which providers compelling evidence on the responsibility of the Assad regime for the use of chemical weapons in many locations across Syria. “We also demand the inclusion of the chlorine gas in the list of chemical weapons that the Assad regime has to abandon. Assad has exploited the exclusion of the chlorine gas from the list and used it in many attacks on particularly civilian targets across Syria,” the Syrian Coalition said. French President Francois Hollande on Monday again regretted that there was no military intervention in Syria at a time when this was justified because of the regime’s use of chemical weapons. “We must support the opposition (in Syria),” Hollande said. He added that he continued to regret “the fact that we didn’t intervene in Syria when chemical weapons were used in August 2013.” “There was no intervention and now Daesh (ISIL), a terrorist movement, has installed itself there and some are starting to say that finally should we not start talking with Bashar Al-Assad,” Hollande added. Similarly, Samantha Power, US Ambassador to the United Nations, said that “the latest findings offer further evidence that the Syrian government has repeatedly attacked its own citizens with poison gas. Commenting after a meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC), Ms. Power said the report reinforced allegations that the Syrian government used chlorine gas as a weapon in its four-year-old civil war after pledging to give up its chemical arsenal. “UNSC met on Syria CW today and reviewed more compelling eyewitness evidence of chlorine gas use by Syrian regime,” Ms. Power tweeted . (Source: Syrian Coalition + Ibtimes)