Syria, a report accuses Damascus: chemical weapons used in 2017
Rights — di Andrea Barolini
An official OPCW report certifies the use of chemical weapons in three military operations carried out in Syria by the Damascus army in 2017.
Syria, a report accuses Damascus: chemical weapons used in 2017
An official OPCW report certifies the use of chemical weapons in three military operations carried out in Syria by the Damascus army in 2017.
The Syrian government used chemical weapons, in particular sarin gas and chlorine, in at least three attacks carried out in March 2017 in al-Lataminah, a locality situated near Hama, in the north of the country. This is confirmed by a report from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – Nobel Prize laureate in 2013 – delivered on Wednesday 8 April to its member states.
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The use of chemical weapons already evoked in a 2018 report
According to the document, "military operations of a strategic nature, as in the case of the three attacks, were carried out solely on the orders of the highest command of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces." In an initial report from 2018, moreover, the OPCW had already documented the use of chemical weapons, but – in accordance with its own mandate – had not identified those responsible.
From June of that same year, however, the OPCW's powers were modified. The international organisation was duly granted the authority to name those responsible for the attacks. In particular, the new document does not directly incriminate President Bashar al-Assad, but points to the involvement of an elite unit of the regular army. As well as the chief of staff who, in turn, answers to Assad.
"Sarin gas and chlorine barrels prepared by former members of a special army unit"
The three attacks in question were carried out on 24, 25 and 30 March 2017 and conducted by two brigades of the 22nd division of the Syrian army. These are the 50th brigade, which used Sukhoi fighter jets with sarin gas munitions, and the 63rd, which used helicopters to drop chlorine barrels from above. Specifically striking the underground hospital of Al-Lataminah.
A landmark investigation by the U.N.-aligned Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has for the first time blamed the Syrian government for chemical attacks on civilians in March 2017.
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The report also specifies that, three days before the attacks, senior officers of the Republican Guard, an elite unit, allegedly ordered former members of "Unit 450" to prepare weapons intended to defend Hama. This division, officially disbanded in 2013, was specialised in the preparation of chemical weapons at Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre. Syria, upon joining the OPCW in September 2013, had committed to entirely destroying its chemical arsenal.
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The new report will now be transmitted to the OPCW's executive council and to the United Nations Secretary-General. But also to the International Mechanism tasked with investigating war crimes perpetrated in Syria.