Exclusive: Chemical weapons watchdog investigates Ghouta attacks – sources

TOPSHOT - Syrian children and adults receive treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on the rebel-held village of al-Shifuniyah in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus late on February 25, 2018. AFP PHOTO

  AMSTERDAM, February 27 (Reuters) - The world's chemical weapons watchdog is investigating recent attacks in the besieged, rebel-held Syrian region of eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used, sources told Reuters.   The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) opened an investigation on Sunday into reports of the repeated use of chlorine bombs this month in the district near the Syrian capital, diplomatic sources told Reuters.   Political leaders in France, the United States and United Kingdom said this month they would back targeted military action against Damascus if there were proof of chemical weapons use by forces under President Bashar al-Assad.   The investigation comes as Russia ordered the establishment of an evacuation corridor and five-hour daily truce to allow residents to leave eastern Ghouta, where 400,000 people are living under siege and bombardment.   Among the attacks the OPCW's fact-finding team will examine is one on Sunday which local health authorities said killed a child and caused symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, the sources said. [caption id="attachment_341364" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Children receive treatment after an alleged chlorine gas attack on Shifunieh, a village in eastern Ghouta. According to activists working in the area, one child died and more than 18 people were affected. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad continue their air and ground attacks on the Damascus suburb
Photograph: Mohammed Badra/EPA[/caption] [caption id="attachment_341365" align="aligncenter" width="800"] A child and a man are treated for chlorine gas inhalation in the besieged Syrian town of Douma, in eastern Ghouta, on 25 February 2018 Reuters[/caption] [caption id="attachment_341366" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Syrian children receive treatment for a suspected chemical attack at a makeshift clinic on the rebel-held village of al-Shifuniyah in the eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus late on Sunday. A child died and at least 13 other people suffered breathing difficulties after a suspected chemical attack on the besieged Syrian rebel enclave, a medic and a monitor said. | AFP-JIJI[/caption] [caption id="attachment_341367" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Residents fleeing a Syrian government bombardment in the rebel-held town of Hamouria in eastern Ghouta. World leaders have expressed outrage at the plight of civilians in eastern Ghouta – which UN chief Antonio Guterres called “hell on earth” – but Moscow and Damascus say they target only militants. PHOTO: AFP[/caption] [caption id="attachment_341368" align="aligncenter" width="800"] A Syrian girl looks at another crying child sitting on a hospital bed in a make-shift clinic in the rebel-held town of Douma, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on February 24. AFP[/caption] [caption id="attachment_341369" align="aligncenter" width="800"] A member of Syrian Civil Defense group, the White Helmets, carries a boy who was wounded during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces, in Ghouta, Syria.
(Photo: AP/PTI)[/caption] The OPCW did not immediately respond to a request for comment.   The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss the operation in public.   Use of chlorine as a chemical weapons is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs and the build-up of fluids can drown victims.   The latest OPCW mission is seeking to determine whether chemical weapons were used in violation of the international weapons convention which Syria signed in 2013 after hundreds died in a massive sarin gas attack in Ghouta.   The OPCW will not assign blame.   The team does not intend to travel to Ghouta because of safety concerns - two previous visits by inspectors in 2013 and 2014 were ambushed - but will gather witness testimony, photographic and video evidence, and interview medical experts.   The United States fired 59 cruise missiles at Syria's Shayrat airbase in April, saying it had been used by Assad's forces to carry out a sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 80 people, many of them women and children.   Syria and its close ally Russia, which provides military support to Assad's forces, deny using chemical weapons and blame insurgents.   A U.N.-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism, established by the United Nations to identify those responsible for chemical weapons attacks, concluded in 2016 that Syrian government forces had used chlorine as a chemical weapon in three cases.   It concluded last year that Syrian government forces were also behind the sarin nerve agent attack on Khan Sheikhoun. A renewal of the mission's mandate was vetoed by Moscow at the U.N. Security Council.   The use of chemical weapons has become systematic in Syria's seven-year war, but political rifts between Western powers and Russia have hamstrung the United Nations and the OPCW, leaving them unable to act against violations of international law. [caption id="attachment_341370" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson delivers a speech on Brexit at the Polixy Exchange in central London, Britain, February 14, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls[/caption]

Britain may join U.S. strikes against Syria if chemical weapon use proven

  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain would consider joining U.S. military strikes against the Syrian government if there is evidence chemical weapons are being used against civilians, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.   Johnson said he hoped Britain and other Western nations would not stand by in the event of a chemical attack, voicing support for limited strikes if there is "incontrovertible evidence" of the Syrian's government involvement.   "If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it," Johnson told BBC radio.   Over the past week, Syria's army and its allies have subjected the rebel-held enclave of Ghouta near Damascus to one of the heaviest bombardments of the seven-year war, killing hundreds.   Britain is part of the U.S.-led coalition involved in air attacks on Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but the government lost a parliamentary vote on the use of force against Syrian government in 2013.   Johnson said he supported the U.S. decision to fire cruise missile at Syrian government targets last year after almost 100 people, including children, were killed in a gas attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.   The United Nations accused the Syrian government of being responsible for an attack that used sarin gas.   "What we need to ask ourselves as a country and what we in the the West need to ask ourselves, is can we allow the use of chemical weapons, the use of these illegal weapons to go unreproved, unchecked, unpunished," Johnson said.   However, he warned there was little international appetite for sustained military action against the Syrian regime.   "The people listening to us and this program in eastern Ghouta cannot get the idea the West is going to intervene to change the odds dramatically in their favour," he said.   The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and said it targets only armed rebels and militants.