U.N. Inspectors’ Report Confirms Chemical Weapons Were Used in Syria

U.N. Inspectors’ Report Confirms Chemical Weapons Were Used in Syria

Rockets armed with the banned chemical nerve agent sarin were used in an Aug. 21 mass killing near Damascus, United Nations chemical weapons inspectors reported Monday in the first official confirmation by scientific experts that such munitions had been deployed in the Syria conflict.

Although the widely awaited report did not ascribe blame for the attack, it concluded that “chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale.”

The inspectors, who visited the Damascus suburbs that suffered the attack in August and left the country with large amounts of evidence 10 days later, said “the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin.”

READ MORE » http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/world/europe/syria-united-nations.html?emc=edit_na_20130916