OPCW Has ‘Compelling Confirmation’ of Chlorine Attacks in Northern Syria

sigurcamp/iStockphoto/Thinkstock(DAMASCUS, Syria) — The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said on Wednesday that investigators have found “compelling confirmation” of the systematic and repeated use of a toxic chemical weapon in villages in northern Syria earlier this year.

A press release from the OPCW says that “the descriptions, physical properties, [behavior] of the gas, and signs and symptoms resulting from exposure, as well as the response of patients to the treatment, leads the [fact-finding mission] to conclude with a high degree of confidence that chlorine, either pure or in mixture, is the toxic chemical in question.”

The organization doesn’t specifically ascribe blame to who may have unleashed the chlorine on the villages of Talmanes, Al Tamanah and Kafr Zeta, though speculation is that such action may have been taken by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke from Baghdad on Wednesday, noting that circumstantial evidence has hinted that the Assad regime has used chlorine “in an amount that amounts to a chemical weapon.”

Assad was not forced to surrender his supply of chlorine as part of the deal reached earlier this year with the U.S. and Russia to eliminate Syrian chemical weapons.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie Harf said on Wednesday that the chlorine was distributed from the air. That information is notable because opposition forces in Syria are not believed to have the means to carry out such an attack. “This points to the conclusion that the Assad regime is responsible for the attacks,” Harf said.

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