Daesh used mustard gas in Syria attack
Beirut — Activists accused the Daesh (the so-called IS) terrorist group Friday of being behind a deadly gas attack in northern Syria this past summer, as the global chemical weapons watchdog confirmed it was mustard gas.
Meanwhile, rebels wrested back a flashpoint town in the central province of Hama, reversing the last of gains the army had made in a month-old offensive.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Friday confirmed with “utmost confidence” that mustard gas was used in August in Syria.
A report from OPCW fact-finding teams said an infant was “very likely” killed in the attack on Marea, a town in Aleppo province, on Aug. 21.
OPCW said the mustard gas was used by non-state actors, but activists and a monitoring group said it was clear that Daesh was behind the attack.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, said “IS (Daesh) used toxic gases during its attack on Marea in August.”
Journalist Maamun Al-Khatib, who was in Marea at the time, said: “We knew it was IS (Daesh) because all the shells were being fired east of Marea, and that area is totally under the control of IS (Daesh).”
Daesh has attacked Marea for months in an effort to cut off a supply route into the country from Turkey.
For activist Nizar Al-Khatib, OPCW’s report “comes too late and isn’t enough, because it doesn’t identify IS (Daesah) as the one responsible for firing the mustard gas.”
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operated a nearby field clinic, treated four members of a single family for “symptoms of exposure to chemical agents.” — AFP
