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A scene from Duma in 2018: A boy wears protective vests through the destroyed city
Photo: OMAR SANADIKI/ REUTERS
The chemical weapons attack on the Syrian city of Douma is one of the most devastating poison attacks of the Syrian war.
The attack five and a half years ago killed 43 people and injured dozens.
Observers suspected the Assad regime was behind the attack, and Damascus itself denied using chemical weapons.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has now confirmed the suspicion that the organization is convinced that the Syrian Air Force is responsible for the attack.
The analysis of a multitude of evidence proves this, said OPCW in The Hague.
Attack of the »Tiger Forces«
A specially deployed team of experts had investigated the allegations and now published their report.
According to this, on the evening of April 7, 2018, at least one helicopter belonging to the Syrian elite unit "Tiger Forces" threw two containers of poisonous chlorine gas at two residential buildings in Douma near the capital Damascus.
"The use of chemical weapons in the Douma - and elsewhere - is unacceptable and a violation of international law," said OPCW chief Fernando Arias.
"Now the world knows the facts, now it's the international community's turn to act, at the OPCW and beyond." The 193 OPCW signatory states, including Syria, have pledged not to use chemical weapons.
In 2021 and 2022, the experts checked soil and blood samples, spoke to witnesses and evaluated data and satellite images.
According to the OPCW, the evidence had also been examined by investigators and several independent experts.
Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, there have been dozens of attacks using chemical weapons, including sarin and mustard gas.
The OPCW had previously determined that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for sarin and chlorine gas bombings.
The Syrian regime has always denied all allegations.
aeh/mrc/dpa