The OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) released its second report on Monday, saying that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that the Syrian Air Force dropped a chlorine bomb on the city of Saraqib in northwestern Idlib province in February 2018
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2021) The OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) released its second report on Monday, saying that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that the Syrian Air Force dropped a chlorine bomb on the city of Saraqib in northwestern Idlib province in February 2018.
The first report of the OPCW body in charge of identifying the perpetrators of chemical attacks was released in April 2020. It claimed that the Syrian Arab Air Force's aircraft dropped bombs containing sarin and chlorine on the town of Ltamenah in Hama province in March 2017. Back then, the Syrian Foreign Ministry slammed the report as a fabrication, arguing that it was based on materials provided by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia).
"[T]he IIT concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that at approximately 21:22 on 4 February 2018, during ongoing attacks against Saraqib, a military helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force under the control of the Tiger Forces hit eastern Saraqib by dropping at least one cylinder. The cylinder ruptured and released a toxic gas, chlorine, which dispersed over a large area affecting 12 named individuals," the fresh report said.
The OPCW body stressed that it had "reached its conclusions on the basis of the degree of certainty of 'reasonable grounds'." In particular, they are based on what they the body says was careful assessment of the information obtained from the fact-fin dig mission in Syria, states parties, other entities, interviews, analyses of samples, gas dispersion models, topographic studies, and expert advice.
The report admitted that among "the challenges faced by the IIT" was its inability to access the site of the incidents in the Syrian Arab Republic and accused Damascus of not granting such access.
The IIT mentioned that Syrian authorities believe that the incident was a staged scenario, and local terrorist armed groups, which controlled the region at the time, "backed by various States," had the means to fabricate and forge false accusations.
"The IIT pursued lines of inquiry and scenarios suggested by the Syrian authorities, but was unable to obtain any concrete information supporting them. The conclusions in this report are based on the combination, consistency, and corroboration of all of the information gathered as a whole," it added.
Russia and Syria have repeatedly questioned findings of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), viewing them as biased. Damascus insists that the full destruction of its arsenal was confirmed by the OPCW in 2016.
