Syria blames Israel for destruction of evidence in Douma chemical attack
The UN's chemical weapons watchdog warned Syria's government not to move or tamper with the gas canisters recovered at Douma.
Evidence recovered from the site of a 2018 poison gas attack on Syrian civilians has been destroyed, Syria’s government told the United Nations’ chemical weapons monitoring agency last month.
The cause, Syria’s government reported, was an Israeli airstrike on previously sealed underground tunnel at a suspected chemical weapons facility some 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from where international investigators had last examined the evidence.
The Organization for the Prevention of the Use of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) reported Friday that two gas cylinders found at the site of the Douma chemical attack were reported to have been destroyed June 8. The OPCW also published the Syrian government’s communique blaming an Israeli airstrike for their destruction.
“The Secretariat additionally recalled that it had previously advised the Syrian Arab Republic that it was not to open, move, or alter the containers or their contents in any way without seeking the prior written consent of the Secretariat,” the report read.
