Skip to main content

Chemical weapons watchdog blames Islamic State for 2015 Syria attack

1 min Mena Today

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Thursday identified Islamic State militants in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the likely perpetrator of a chemical weapons attack in Marea, Syria, on Sept. 1, 2015.

Labels of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are seen iside a damaged house in Douma in Damascus, Syria April 23, 2018. Reuters/ Ali Hashisho

Labels of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are seen iside a damaged house in Douma in Damascus, Syria April 23, 2018. Reuters/ Ali Hashisho

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Thursday identified Islamic State militants in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as the likely perpetrator of a chemical weapons attack in Marea, Syria, on Sept. 1, 2015.

There were "reasonable grounds to believe that on 1 September 2015, during sustained attacks aimed at capturing the town of Marea, units of ISIL deployed sulfur mustard," the organisation said.

The OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team found that 11 individuals who had come into contact with a "black, vicious substance" found in projectiles at the site of the attack, had experienced symptoms consistent with exposure to sulfur mustard.

The team had established that the chemical payload was deployed by artillery from areas under ISIL control, it said.

"No other entity possessed the means, motives, and capabilities to deploy sulfur mustard as part of an attack in Marea on 1 September, 2015," it added.

Earlier OPCW investigations have found that the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an April 2017 attack, dropped gas cylinders onto residential buildings in the rebel-held Syrian city of Douma in 2018, and has repeatedly used chlorine as a weapon.

Syria denies using chemical weapons and has blamed Islamic State militants for mustard gas use.

The Investigation and Identification Team was established by member states at the Hague-based OPCW in November 2018 to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria after Russia vetoed the joint United Nations-OPCW mission.

Reporting by Bart Meijer

Related

Palestine

France’s foreign policy is becoming a tool of domestic appeasement

A recent report commissioned by France’s Ministry of the Interior has pulled back the curtain on an alarming shift in the country’s diplomatic thinking: the idea that recognizing a Palestinian state could serve—not as a peace initiative—but as a tool to “appease” its own Muslim population.

Syria

Israeli military says it arrested Hamas members in Syria

Israeli troops entered southwestern Syria in the early hours of Thursday and arrested several people who the Israeli military said were members of Palestinian militant group Hamas but which Syria's interior ministry said were civilians.

Israel

Israel Knesset rejects vote on dissolving itself

Israel's parliament rejected early on Thursday a preliminary vote to dissolve itself, the Knesset said in a statement, after an agreement was reached regarding a dispute over conscription

Subscribe to our newsletter

Mena banner 4

To make this website run properly and to improve your experience, we use cookies. For more detailed information, please check our Cookie Policy.

  • Necessary cookies enable core functionality. The website cannot function properly without these cookies, and can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.