Chlorine used in attack on Syria's Douma: watchdog

The world's chemical weapons watchdog said Friday that chlorine was used against the rebel-held Syrian town of Douma in 2018, in a long-awaited final report on the deadly attack.

The report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was based on a visit by inspectors to the site of the attack which witnesses said killed 43 people.

Western powers led by the United States blamed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the incident and unleashed air strikes on military installations in response.

The Hague-based watchdog said two cylinders likely containing chlorine smashed into a housing block in the town.

The OPCW report said that there were "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018. This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine."

It said however that it found no evidence of the use of nerve agents in Douma, which had been previously alleged by some parties in the conflict.

The findings confirmed an interim OPCW report released last July saying that traces of chlorine were found.

The report does not place blame because it was not in the OPCW's remit at the time, although the watchdog has since been given powers to investigate responsibility for all chemical attacks in Syria back to 2014.

(AFP)