By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press on Sep 17, 2013, at 2:28 AM Updated on 9/17/13 at 6:21 AM
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks Monday during a press conference following a meeting of the Security Council on Syria. BEBETO MATTHEWS / Associated Press
U.N. inspectors said Monday there is "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in a deadly attack last month in Syria. But their report didn't say which side was to blame.
The findings represent the first official confirmation by scientific experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria's civil war, but the report left the key question of who launched the attack unanswered.
The rebels and their U.S. and Western supporters have said the regime of President Bashar Assad was behind the Aug. 21 attack, while the Syrian government and its closest ally, Russia, blame the rebels.
U.S., British and French diplomats said the findings supported their conclusion; Russia disagreed.
Secretary of State John Kerry briefed U.S. allies on a broad agreement reached over the weekend with Russia to end Syria's chemical weapons program, pressing for broad support for the plan that averted U.S. military strikes. Kerry met in Paris with his counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia before seeking a U.N. resolution that would detail how the international community can secure and destroy Syria's stockpile and precursor chemicals.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon presented the U.N. inspectors' report to a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council before its release.
"This is a war crime and a grave violation of ... international law," Ban told the council in remarks distributed to the press. "The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves. ... The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare."
The inspectors' report said "the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used ... in the Ghouta area of Damascus" on Aug. 21.
"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the inspectors said in their report to Ban.
Inspectors still have two sites to investigate.
The report didn't mention how many people were killed. The U.S. says more than 1,400, but other estimates have been far lower.
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said "only the regime could have carried out this large-scale attack." She said there is no evidence the rebels possess the nerve agent.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said "Allegations that in fact it was the opposition who used chemical weapons cannot be simply shrugged off. Those allegations also need to be very seriously investigated."
Highlights of the United Nations report
The U.N. report cited a number of facts supporting its conclusion that chemical weapons were used:
- Rocket fragments were found to contain sarin.
- Close to the impact sites, in the area where people were affected, inspectors collected 30 soil and environmental samples and "the environment was found to be contaminated by sarin."
- Blood, urine and hair samples from 34 patients who had signs of poisoning by a chemical compound provided "definitive evidence of exposure to sarin by almost all of the survivors assessed."
The inspectors described the rockets used to disperse the sarin as a variant of an M14 artillery rocket, with either an original or an improvised warhead.
The inspectors cautioned that the five sites they investigated had been "well traveled by other individuals prior to the arrival of the mission."
"During the time spent at these locations, individuals arrived carrying other suspected munitions indicating that such potential evidence is being moved and possibly manipulated," the report said. The areas were under rebel control, but the report did not elaborate on who the individuals were.
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