Damascus: UN experts in Syria are investigating seven alleged chemical weapons attacks and expect to wind up their work on the ground on Monday, the United Nations said on Friday.
In a statement issued from the Syrian capital, where the team of experts arrived earlier this week, the UN said the experts hoped to have a comprehensive report ready “by late October”.
The UN mission is separate from a team of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors due to start work next week in Syria to destroy its chemical arsenal.
The alleged attacks being probed include a March 19 incident in Khan al-Assal, in Aleppo province of northern Syria, that both the regime and rebels reported, each accusing the other side of responsibility.
Other sites being investigated include the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood of Aleppo city, allegedly the site of an April attack, and Saraqeb in the northwest province of Idlib on the border with Turkey.
The team is also continuing investigations into an August 21 attack in the Ghouta area of the suburbs of Damascus that coincided with their first mission to Syria last month.
The UN experts visited the site of that alleged attack during their first trip and have issued a preliminary report confirming the use of the nerve agent sarin in the area.
In addition, the team is investigating alleged attacks on August 22 in Bahhariyeh, near Damascus, on August 24 in the Jubar district of the capital, and a seventh incident reported in Ashrafiyeh Sahnaya, Damascus province, on August 25.
“The UN team of investigators, which returned to Syria for a second working visit on 25th September, expects to finalise its activities in the country by Monday, 30th September,” the statement said.
“In the course of performing their task, the experts have received several documents and samples and have conducted many interviews.”
The statement said the team was working on a “comprehensive report that it hopes will be ready by late October”.
UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the incidents in Bahhariyeh, Jubar and Ashrafiyeh Sahnaya were all reported by the Syrian government after the controversy over the August 21 attack.
The officials said the UN team was unlikely to visit Khan al-Assal, Saraqeb or Sheikh Maqsud, noting the alleged attacks there took place in March and April and the bio-medical evidence will have mostly degraded.
The UN team’s first report, issued on September 16, said there was evidence that sarin had been used in the August 21 attack.
But the experts are mandated only to investigate whether chemical weapons were used, not to determine who was responsible for their use.
A separate team from the Hague-based OPCW is due to begin its work inspecting Syria’s chemical weapons on October 1, a day after the UN team finishes its mission.
The OPCW is overseeing implementation of a US-Russian deal under which Syria has agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal for destruction.
On Friday, the OPCW said it would “as soon as possible and in any case not later than October 1 (Tuesday) initiate inspections in the Syrian Arab Republic”.
Both the Syrian regime and the rebels seeking its overthrow have regularly accused each other of using chemical weapons.
But in the wake of the Ghouta attack, which allegedly left hundreds dead, the United States threatened military action against the Syrian regime, which it accuses of responsibility.
The regime denies involvement but agreed soon afterwards to relinquish its chemical arsenal under the US-Russian deal, which is to be enshrined in a UN resolution.
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