MESPOTAMIA NEWS “FIRST RESULTS” SYRIA INVESTIGATION : OPCW Inspectors Complete Fact-Finding on Douma’s Chemical Attack Sites
WEST KURDISTAN (SYRIA) – Inspectors have completed their initial fact-finding in Douma, the town near Syria’s capital Damascus where the Assad regime carried out chemical attacks from January to April during an offensive to regain the area. The OPCW announced, after the inspectors took samples and interviewed witnesses, that initial analysis will take at least three to four weeks in The Netherlands. Meanwhile. the Fact-Finding Mission tries to collect more information and material. The organization said it can give no timetable for delivery of a final report.
Some accounts said the inspectors are also seeking to exhume bodies to examine the victims. Sources from Douma said locals had buried about 50 people to try and prevent the Assad regime and Russia from taking away all evidence of the attacks.
The Assad regime carried out at least seven chlorine attacks from mid-January before and during the main air and ground assault. It then carried out the double attack on April 7 — according to doctors, first responders, citizen journalists, activists, and NGOs — the first with chlorine and the second with chlorine and a stronger agent, both dropped by helicopters.
Rebels in Douma capitulated hours later as more chemical attacks were reportedly threatened, agreeing to forced removals to northern Syria. Russian personnel quickly went to the sites of the attacks, with local sources saying that evidence was removed and disturbed. The Assad regime and Russia also delayed inspections for a week by the OPCW, after its team arrived in Damascus on April 14, while Moscow blocked any attribution of blame for the mass killing.