Chlorine gas used in 2016 attack on rebel-held area in Syria, says UN watchdog

A prohibited chemical weapon was used in an attack on Syria’s northern rebel-held town of Kafr Zeita on October 1, 2016, a United Nations watchdog has found.

An investigation by the UN's Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based on witness interviews and digital evidence, showed that two industrial chlorine cylinder barrels were used “near a field hospital”.

"The report concluded there are reasonable grounds to believe that the industrial chlorine cylinder was used as a weapon," the OPCW’s fact-finding mission said.

Witnesses reported a helicopter taking off from the regime-held Hama airport before the attack, on an agricultural area where a number of rebel groups were sheltering in caves.

"Shortly afterwards, the helicopter dropped two barrels, according to a number of witnesses, while others reported being aware of one barrel only," the report said.

"Approximately 20 individuals suffered from suffocation and breathing difficulties."

The UN watchdog said it had obtained one of the cylinders used in the attack.

”The industrial cylinder was engraved with markings reading CL2, the molecular formula for chlorine gas.”

The OPCW’s findings confirm what local opposition groups, such as the White Helmets, the Syrian Network for Human Rights group and investigative reports found at the time.

The highly anticipated report was based on a visit by inspectors to the site of the incident, which was blamed by the international community on Mr Assad and the Russian government that supports him.

Syria has repeatedly denied the allegations and says it has handed its stockpile over to the UN in accordance with a 2013 agreement.

The OPCW has routinely found chemical weapons to have been used in attacks on rebel-held areas in Syria, and while their use contravenes international humanitarian law, the watchdog has stopped short of blaming President Bashar Al Assad's regime for the atrocities.

In 2019, it concluded that chlorine was used in a fatal attack on the town of Douma the previous year, in which 43 people were killed.