An investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) points to the direct responsibility of the Syrian regime in three attacks on sarin gas and chlorine, carried out in March 2017 in Latamné, near Hama, in the north of Syria, which left a hundred injured.
In the report given Wednesday, April 8 to its member states, the international organization believes that "Military operations of a strategic nature, such as these three attacks, take place only on the orders of the highest levels of the Syrian Arab armed forces." A first OPCW report on these events, published in 2018, documented the use of chemical weapons but, in accordance with its mandate, the organization refrained from pointing the finger at any part. Since June 2018 and a vote to this effect by its member states, the OPCW has had the power to appoint officials, entrusted to the identification and investigation team.
The new document does not explicitly incriminate President Bashar Al-Assad, but mentions the involvement of the Tiger forces, an elite army unit, and that of the Chief of the Syrian Army staff, who is placed under the orders of the Head of State. "The authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, as the chief decision-maker fully exercising his command powers over the armed forces, has been repeatedly confirmed. "
According to investigators, the three attacks of March 24, 25 and 30, 2017 were carried out by two brigades of the 22e Syrian Air Force Division: the 50e brigade, which used Sukhoi 22 to bomb the population with sarin gas; and the 63e helicopter brigade, which dropped barrels of chlorine, notably on the Latamné underground hospital. The investigation established that the composition of the sarin used on these days was characteristic of that used by the chemical program of the Syrian authorities.
"Threat to peace"
The attacks came as Syrian rebel militias, including the radical Islamist group Jabhat Al-Nosra, an offshoot of Al-Qaida, were advancing in rural areas of northern Hama. Three days before the attack, the report said, senior officers from the Republican Guard, an elite unit, ordered officers, former members of Branch 450, to prepare weapons to defend Hama. Before being officially closed in 2013, this branch was responsible for the mixing, stockpiling and filling of chemical weapons within the Center for Syrian Studies and Scientific Research (CERS), to which was assigned "A liaison officer of the presidential palace", according to investigators.
