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Photo: AFP
Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun
Photo: AFP

Syrian government dismisses report on sarin attack

Assad regime says OPCW report, which determines chemical weapons were used in April attack in Khan Sheikhoun, is based on 'testimonies offered by terrorists in Turkey'; Russia describes report as biased.

BEIRUT - The Syrian government on Saturday dismissed a report by the international chemical weapons watchdog that said the banned nerve agent sarin was used in an April attack in northern Syria, saying it lacked "any credibility."

 

 

Western governments including the United States have said the Syrian government carried out the attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun which killed dozens of people. The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons.

 

The attack prompted a US missile strike against a Syrian air base which Washington said was used to launch the strike. The report into the attack was circulated to members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, but was not made public.

 

Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: AFP) (Photo: AFP)
Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: AFP)
 

In a statement, the Syrian foreign ministry said the fact-finding team had based its report on "the testimonies offered by terrorists in Turkey." Turkey is a major backer of the Syrian opposition to President Bashar Assad.

 

After interviewing witnesses and examining samples, the fact-finding mission of the OPCW concluded that "a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance."

 

Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, has described the report as biased.

 

Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: Reuters)
Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: Reuters)

 

The attack on April 4 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province was the most deadly in Syria's civil war in more than three years. Western intelligence agencies had also blamed the Assad government. Syrian officials have repeatedly denied using banned toxins in the conflict.

 

A joint United Nations and OPCW investigation has found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that ISIS militants used mustard gas.

 

Syria joined the chemicals weapons convention in 2013 under a Russian-US agreement, averting military intervention under then US President Barack Obama.

 

Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: EPA)
Victims of the April 2017 chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun (Photo: EPA)

 

Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group accused the Syrian army of using chlorine gas against its fighters on Saturday in battles east of Damascus - an accusation the military swiftly denied as a fabrication.

 

The Failaq al-Rahman group said more than 30 people suffered suffocation as a result of the attack in Ain Tarma in the Eastern Ghouta region, which government forces have been battling to take back from insurgents.

 

In a statement circulated by state-run media, a military source said the army command completely denied the accusation. "It has not used any chemical weapons in the past, and will not use them at any time."

 

The United States said on Wednesday the Syrian government appeared to have heeded a warning this week from Washington not to carry out a chemical weapons attack.

 

Russia warned it would respond proportionately if the United States took pre-emptive measures against Syrian forces after Washington said on Monday it appeared the Syrian military was preparing to conduct a chemical weapons attack.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.01.17, 21:50
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