Watchdog blames Syrian Air Force of chemical attack in 2018
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Friday there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that the Air Forces of the Syrian government were the perpetrators of the chemical weapons attack on 7 April 2018 in Douma in Rif Dimasq Governorate, southern Syria.
This came in a report published on Friday by the abovementioned organization based on the holistic assessment of the large volume and wide range of evidence gathered and analyzed.
“On the evening of 7 April 2018, at least one helicopter of the Syrian ‘Tiger Forces’ Elite Unit dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a civilian-inhabited area in Douma, killing 43 named individuals and affecting dozens more,” the report read.
Syria, which joined the OPCW in 2013 under pressure from the international community after being blamed for another deadly chemical weapon attack, does not recognize the investigation team’s authority and has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.
“The use of chemical weapons in Douma – and anywhere – is unacceptable and a breach of international law,” said OPCW Director-General Ambassador Fernando Arias.
The report said there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that during a government military attack to recapture Douma, at least one Syrian air force Mi8/17 helicopter dropped two yellow cylinders on the city.
One of the cylinders hit the roof of a three-story residential building and destroyed, “rapidly released toxic gas, chlorine, in very high concentrations, which rapidly dispersed within the building killing 43 named individuals and affecting dozens more,” according to the report.
A second cylinder burst through the roof of another building into an apartment below and only partially destroyed, “mildly affecting those who first arrived at the scene,” the report added.
The report found that the two cylinders carrying chlorine were modified and filled at the Dumayr air base and the helicopter or helicopters that dropped them were under the control of the Syrian forces’ elite Tiger Force.
The OPCW team “considered a range of possible scenarios and tested their validity against the evidence they gathered and analyzed to reach their conclusion: that the Syrian Arab Air Forces are the perpetrators of this attack,” the organization said in a statement.
The conclusion of the report is reached on the basis of “reasonable grounds”, which is the standard of proof consistently adopted by international fact-finding bodies and commissions of inquiry. The IIT conducted its investigation between January 2021 and December 2022.
The IIT was established by member states at the Hague-based OPCW in November 2018 to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria after Russia vetoed the joint UN-OPCW mission.
Director-General Arias added: “The world now knows the facts – it is up to the international community to take action, at the OPCW and beyond.”