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AMSTERDAM / Reuters
The world’s chemical weapons watchdog is investigating recent attacks in the besieged, rebel-held Syrian region of eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used, sources told Reuters.
The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) opened an investigation into reports of the repeated use of chlorine bombs this month in the district near the Syrian capital, diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Political leaders in France, the United States and United Kingdom said this month they would back targeted military action against Damascus if there were proof of chemical weapons use by forces under President Bashar al-Assad.
The investigation comes as Russia ordered the establishment of an evacuation corridor and five-hour daily truce to allow residents to leave eastern Ghouta, where 400,000 people are living under siege and bombardment.
Among the attacks the OPCW’s fact-finding team will examine is one which local health authorities said killed a child and caused symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, the sources said. The OPCW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The sources spoke on condition of anon-ymity because they were not permitted to discuss the operation in public.
Use of chlorine as a chemical weapons is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs and the build-up of fluids can drown victims.
The latest OPCW mission is seeking to determine whether chemical weapons were used in violation of the international weapons convention which Syria signed in 2013 after hundreds died in a massive sarin gas attack in Ghouta.