Syrian rescuers give OPCW team locations of suspected attack graves

Reports of the attack prompted Western air strikes against Syria on Saturday, but the Syrian government backed by its close ally Russia denies either using or possessing such weapons.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent a team to Syria at the weekend, but it has not yet been able to visit Douma and examine the site of the alleged attack.

“We have handed to the fact-finding mission of the OPCW all the information we gathered about the chemical attack, including the exact burial place of the victims,” Saleh, who is based in Turkey, told Reuters via a messaging service.

The suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people in Douma, medical relief organizations say. Jaish al-Islam, which controlled the town, agreed to withdraw soon afterwards, attributing the decision to the attack.

The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples, interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. But, more than a week after the suspected attack, hard evidence might be hard to trace.

Medical charities operating in opposition-held parts of Syria have dismissed those statements as propaganda given under duress.

EVIDENCE

A visit by international chemical weapons inspectors to the location of one suspected gas attack in Douma was delayed after gunfire at the site during a visit by a U.N. security team on Tuesday, sources told Reuters.

A man is washed following alleged chemical weapons attack, in what is said to be Douma, Syria in this still image from video obtained by Reuters on April 8, 2018. White Helmets/Reuters TV via REUTERS

One source told Reuters the advance team had “encountered a security issue” including gunfire which led to the delay, but could not provide additional details. Another said they had been met by protesters demanding aid, and gunfire was heard. The U.N. then left.

Syria’s U.N. ambassador said the fact-finding mission would begin its work in Douma on Wednesday if the U.N. security team deemed the situation there safe.

The United States has accused Russia of blocking the inspectors from reaching the site of the suspected attacks in Syria and say Russians or Syrians may have tampered with evidence on the ground.

Moscow denies this and blamed delays on the retaliatory U.S.-led missile strikes on Syria at the weekend.

Saleh said the situation in the battered eastern Ghouta city had been catastrophic since the day before the attack due to continuous bombardment, meaning they had had no time to identify victims in a proper way and document their deaths.

“The priority was to bury the dead as soon as possible,” he said.

Source: (Reuters)