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.
Rebels leave Douma in April 2018
Pro-Syrian government forces gather around buses carrying Jaish al-Islam fighters and their families from their former rebel bastion of Douma as they arrive at the Syrian government-held side of the Wafideen checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus, after being evacuated from the last rebel-held pocket in eastern Ghouta on April 9, 2018. The evacuations came after accusations Syria's government had used toxic gas on Douma, which the regime denied. - YOUSSEF KARWASHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

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.

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