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The locations of the three attacks
Syria, April 29, 2014
Syria chemical weapons: the proof that Assad regime launching chlorine attacks on children
Original source
President Bashar al-Assad is still using chemical weapons against civilians, a scientific analysis of samples from multiple gas attacks has shown.
In the first independent testing of its kind, conducted exclusively for The Telegraph, soil samples from the scene of three recent attacks in the country were collected by trained individuals known to this news organisation and analysed by a chemical warfare expert. Our results show sizeable and unambiguous traces of chlorine and ammonia present at the site of all three attacks.
The use in war of "asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases" - both of which can be produced by chlorine and ammonia - is banned by the Geneva Protocol, of which Syria is a signatory.
The attacks, which in some cases used canisters marked with their chemical contents, were conducted by helicopter. In the Syrian civil war, only the regime has access to aerial power, making it now certain that the recent chemical attacks could only have been carried out by the regime, not the opposition.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British chemical weapons expert involved in the testing, said: "We have unequivocally proved that the regime has used chlorine and ammonia against its own civilians in the last two to three weeks."
Even as results of the Telegraph tests were being made public on Tuesday the global chemical weapons watchdog Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon announced it would be sending a fact-finding mission to Syria to investigate allegations of the gas attacks. The Syrian government said it would accept the mission and is promising to provide security.
The regime had previously agreed to hand over its chemical weapons to international control following an attack in the suburbs of Damascus last August. That attack is said to have killed up to 1,400 people and sparked international outrage.
But even as the OPCW now works to remove the last elements of Syria's declared stockpile, a crude but deadly new type of chemical attack is being launched.
In the last two weeks alone there have been eight separate chemical attacks on rebel held towns and villages in Idlib province.
The Syrian government has denied the claim that it is using chemical weapons again as a "baseless allegation" with some critics, including Russia, claiming the attacks could have been mounted by the rebels themselves to trigger international intervention.
But chemical tests conducted with The Telegraph now confirm that chlorine gas and ammonia have been used in Idlib, and that the toxins came from barrels that were dropped from helicopters.
This newspaper obtained soil samples collected from sites of chemical attacks inside Syria by Dr Ahmad - a medic whose real identity cannot be revealed for his own protection - who had previously received training in sample collection by western chemical weapons experts. Mr de Bretton-Gordon, a British chemical weapons expert and director of Secure Bio, a private company, was one of the trainers.
This week Dr Ahmad passed on soil samples taken from the attacks that happened on April 11 and 18 in Kafr Zita, and on the 21 April. There was also a sample from an attack last week in the village of Talmenes which killed at least three people.
Several people, including children, died and hundreds were seriously wounded in the attacks. Video footage and eye witness testimony show casualties displaying symptoms typical of chlorine gas and ammonia poisoning: sore eyes, irritated skin, difficulty breathing and a bloody foaming from the mouth.
Mr de Bretton-Gordon, a retired British Army colonel, said: "I had to verify that the samples had the complete chain of evidence, so that the video footage, stills photography, and GPS locations taken by Dr Ahmad in collecting the samples marries up - and it does. "The samples were kept along the rules that the OPCW require. They were presented in perfect condition required so that we can test them."
Watched by The Telegraph, Mr de Bretton-Gordon tested the samples for chlorine and ammonia, and the results of the analysis were soon clear.
"In each of the samples we have found evidence of chlorine," said Mr de Bretton-Gordon. "Also, the samples indicate that ammonia has also been used in Kafr Zita."
Last week François Hollande, France's president, said his government had some "information" but not "proof" that the Syrian government had used chlorine gas in recent attacks.
At the behest of western nations, including Britain, the OPCW announced on Tuesday that it is sending a fact-finding mission to probe the recent alleged use of chlorine gas in the Syrian conflict.
The head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Uzumcu, announced "the creation of an OPCW mission to establish facts surrounding allegations of use of chlorine in Syria", a statement said.
Chlorine was not a substance included in the original OPCW weapons deal but its use as a chemical weapon, with the intent to cause harm, is a direct contraction of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The Telegraph understands that some foreign governments have also collected and are testing samples from the attack sites in Idlib. The Telegraph's findings however, are the first independent scientific results to be published on the attacks.
"For the first time there is independent collected and produced evidence that the regime has been using chlorine and ammonia," said Mr de Bretton-Gordon.
FCO spokesman said: "We are deeply concerned by the allegations that chemical weapons, including chlorine, continue to be used in the Syrian conflict. Last week we called for an investigation and we therefore welcome the decision taken by the OPCW to determine the facts. The UK, along with a growing number of states, again raised these concerns in today's OPCW Executive Council meeting. The OPCW mission must provide urgent answers for the Syrian people who have already suffered so much."
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