admin
UNITED NATIONS. — Banned chemical weapons have been used on a wide scale in the Syria war and there is clear evidence sarin killed hundreds of people in one major attack, UN inspectors said yesterday. Chemical arms have been used in the 30-month-old conflict “on a relatively large scale,” says the report to be released by UN leader Ban Ki-moon.
UN experts, who went to Syria last month, are not allowed to say who carried out the attacks. But they said there is “clear and convincing” evidence that sarin gas killed hundreds of people in an attack on Ghouta near Damascus on August 21.
The attack sparked threats by the United States and other Western nations of a military strike on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The US says over 1 400 people died in Ghouta.
Though the military threat has eased after Russia and the US agreed a plan to put Syrian chemical arms under international control, the UN report will influence what measures are taken to make Assad stick to the plan.
“Surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used” in the August 21 attack, said the report. While Assad blames opposition rebels for the attack, Western nations say only the government has such weapons.
“The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used” in Ghouta, said the first page of the inspectors’ report, which was inadvertently leaked by the United Nations.
“This result leaves us with the deepest concern,” they added.
The experts said that based on evidence they had found, “the conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic . . . against civilians including children on a relatively large scale.
A UN-mandated independent commission of inquiry into rights violations in the Syria war announced separately on Monday that it was investigating 14 alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
The UN experts went to Damascus on August 18 to investigate claims that chemical weapons were used at Khan al-Asal, near Aleppo on March 19 and at two other sites, which were named as Sheik Maqmood and Saraqueb. — AFP.
Online Reporter