Chemical weapons experts in Turkey to investigate attack in Syria; UK confirms sarin use

[webfact]

Chemical weapons experts in Turkey to investigate; UK confirms sarin use

By Anthony Deutsch

REUTERS

 

FILE PHOTO: A crater is seen at the site of an airstrike, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah

 

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Global chemical weapons investigators have gone to Turkey to collect samples as part of an inquiry into an alleged chemical weapons attack in neighbouring Syria last week that killed 87 people.

 

The fact-finding mission was sent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague to gather bio-metric samples and interview survivors, sources told Reuters on Thursday.

 

The toxic gas attack on April 4, which killed scores of people including children, prompted a U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base and widened a rift between the United States and Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his conflict with rebels and militants fighting to oust him.

 

Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied using any chemical weapons. Russian officials said the gas had been released by an air strike on a poison gas storage depot controlled by rebels. Washington said that account was not credible, and rebels have denied it.

 

Samples taken from the poison gas site in Syria's Idlib governorate tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, the British delegation at the OPCW said on Thursday.

 

"UK scientists have analysed samples taken from Khan Sheikhoun. These have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, or a sarin-like substance," the delegation said during a special session on Syria at the OPCW in The Hague.

 

The UK result confirmed earlier testing by Turkish authorities that concluded that sarin had been used for the first time on a large scale in Syria's civil war since 2013.

 

The OPCW mission will determine whether chemical weapons were used, but is not mandated to assign blame. Its findings, expected in 3-4 weeks, will be passed to a joint United Nations-OPCW investigation tasked with identifying individuals or institutions responsible for using chemical weapons.

 

International investigators have concluded that sarin, chlorine and sulphur mustard gas have been used in Syria's six-year-old conflict, with government forces using chlorine and Islamic State militants using sulphur mustard.

 

Last week's poison gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in the rebel-held province of Idlib near the Turkish border was the most lethal since a sarin attack on Aug. 21, 2013 killed hundreds in a rebel-controlled suburb of the capital Damascus.

 

(Reporting by Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-14

 

[Roadman]

So I guess as more and more evidence piles up against what was obvious all along that Assad used chemical weapons the conspiracy dreamers and theorist will now be polishing up the'but you cant trust the British and the UN' to help make their but Putin and Assad would never do that cause they have so much to lose and they are nicer and more believable people than anybody in the west. 

[4737 Carlin]

Civilians die during wars - whether they're incinerated by bombs or gassed to death. Anyhow, let's kick off world war 3 because of how Donald Trump's daughter 'feels' about it.

[twix38]

Na, let's have 8 more years of Obama's weak dismal fudging and empty theats whilst the world's worst make unimpeded progress on annexing parts of sovereign countries, progress on N. Korean nuclear capabilities and ISIS strengthening whilst not even able to express the words Muslim Fundamentalist!

 

Obama's weakness has seen amultitude of bad outcomes from Syria's Red Line through the Arab uprising, Libya and Russia, China and N. Korea's deaming the USA of little significance.

 

At least things moving in a better direction now.