Weapons experts have concluded for the first time that mustard gas was used during fighting in Syria in August, an official at the global chemical arms watchdog told AFP Thursday.
The deadly gas was used in the flashpoint town Marea in the northern province of Aleppo on August 21, the source from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.
“We have determined the facts, but we have not determined who was responsible,” the source said, asking not to be named.
A confidential report has been sent to the member states of the OPCW, which are due to meet for the UN body’s annual conference at the end of November at its headquarters in The Hague.
Syrian rebels and aid groups said that at the end of August dozens of people were affected by a chemical attack on Marea, where moderate opposition rebels and militants from the Islamic State (IS) group were battling.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) said it had treated four civilians from one family. According to patients at an MSF hospital in Aleppo, a mortar hit their house and “after the explosion a yellow gas filled the living room.”
According to rebels on the ground, more than 50 mortar shells were launched on the town that day by IS militants.
The deadly, suffocating gas was first used by German forces in Belgium during World War I in 1917. It was banned by the United Nations in 1993.
Allegations that the jihadist IS militants have been using chemical arms have been increasing in recent months in both Iraq and Syria.