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Chemical weapons watchdog found sarin used in March Syria attack

October 4, 2017 at 8:45 pm

Image of Syrian children receiving treatment after the Assad regime carried out a chlorine gas attack in Syria [Aid for Syria Convoy/Facebook]

Samples from an attack by Syrian forces in March on an opposition-held town tested positive for the banned nerve agent sarin in an examination by the global chemical weapons watchdog, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The 30 March air strike in the town of Latamneh, in the northern Syrian Hama area, injured around 70 people who suffered nausea, foaming at the mouth and muscle spasms.

“The results prove the presence of sarin or sarin-related chemicals in most of the samples analysed,” a source told MEMO of the findings by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Military officials have repeatedly denied that forces under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have used chemical weapons during the country’s civil war.

Read: Syrian opposition says Russian jets kill civilians fleeing across Euphrates

UN war crimes investigators, however, said in a report last month that Syrian forces had used chemical weapons more than two dozen times, including in a sarin attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April that killed more than 80 people.

A Joint UN-OPCW investigation found that government forces used chlorine barrel bombs at least three times, while Daesh militants had used sulphur mustard gas.

The latest finding by the OPCW is expected to be included in a report by its Fact-Finding Mission for Syria, due to be finalised in coming weeks.