The United States has endorsed a global chemical weapons watchdog's recent investigation into Syria, which concluded this week that government forces likely used chlorine gas during an attack on a residential area in 2018. 

“This latest finding should come as a surprise to no one,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Wednesday. “The regime has consistently responded with death and destruction to calls by the Syrian people for reform and change. These well-documented atrocities include the use of chemical weapons.”

A report released Monday from the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a Syrian air force helicopter dropped at least one cylinder containing chlorine on the town of Saraqib in rebel-held Idlib province on Feb. 4, 2018. At least 12 people displayed symptoms consistent with chlorine exposure, the UN-backed investigative team said, including shortness of breath, skin irritation, chest pain and coughing.

“The United States concurs with the OPCW’s conclusions cited in this report and continues to assess that the Assad regime retains sufficient chemicals to use sarin, to produce and deploy chlorine munitions, and to develop new chemical weapons,” Price said.