A report by a watchdog for chemical weapons concluded that a helicopter controlled by Syria’s elite military unit “Tiger Forces” dropped a chlorine cylinder on the rebel city of Saraqib in February 2018. .
‘There are reasonable reasons to believe that a military helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force hit the eastern Saraqib around 21:22 on February 4, 2018 during ongoing attacks on Saraqib by dropping at least one cylinder. , ”Reads the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “The cylinder burst and released a toxic gas, chlorine, which spread over a large area and affected 12 named individuals.”
The dozen individuals exposed to the chemical suffered from skin irritation, chest pain and nausea, the report said.
Witnesses told the OPCW that on the day of the attack, they heard a helicopter sound between 21:15 and 21:22, and one or two items fell and hit the ground. “One person who lived in a nearby shelter,” said he went to see what had happened, and began to feel sick as he approached the area in the direction of the origin of the noise. Video evidence obtained by the OPCW confirmed evidence reports.
Despite increasing evidence to the contrary, the Assad regime has flatly denied using chemical weapons in the conflict.
The OPCW report relies on interviews with victims and medical personnel who responded to the incident, samples from the scene examined by toxicologists, and satellite images obtained by the team identifying an impact point.
In response to the investigation, Syrian authorities claimed that White Helmet rescue workers were working with Jihadi groups to ‘set up’ the incident in order to ‘forge accusations against the Syrian Arab army’. The watchdog group found no evidence to support the claim.
The infamous Tiger Forces in Syria is a pro-government, Russian-backed, intelligence-driven air militia, which according to the Middle East Institute ‘is widely regarded as the most powerful and cruel of the four intelligence branches’. The founder of the unit is accused of ordering the killing of hundreds of protesters in the early days of Syria’s ten-year conflict.
Monday’s report is the second OPCW investigation into the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war. The first confirmed the use of a sarin nerve agent and chlorine against civilians in an attack on the city of Ltamenah in March 2017, killing three people and injuring 32 who suffered from vomiting, breathing problems and foaming at the mouth. .