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Chemical weapons experts have not entered Douma

April 19, 2018 18:16·

In the wake of the April 14 US -led coalition strike on Syria, the Russian media repeatedly focused on assertions that some 70 percent of the missiles fired at Syrian targets were shot down by the country's air defense system. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus.

He says the U.S., France and Britain intervened in a "legitimate, multilateral framework" and stressed airstrikes specifically targeted three chemical weapon facilities "without any human life loss".

OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu told a meeting of the organization's Executive Council on Wednesday that the team will not visit Douma until United Nations security experts, who came under fire in the town on Tuesday, deem it safe and only if the team "can have unhindered access to the sites".

The day before, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said at a meeting at the OPCW headquarters in The Hague that the United Nations security team was forced to retreat, delaying the arrival of chemical weapons inspectors due to visit the site of the alleged attack.

Damascus and Moscow have both denied using poison gas and have broadcast statements from hospital workers in Douma - which medical aid groups operating in rebel areas have dismissed as propaganda - saying that no chemical attack took place.

The inspectors arrived on Saturday (14 April) to examine whether chemical weapons were used at Douma on 7 April, and if so what kind.

A United Nations official says a U.N. team on a security mission to the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria was sacked upon and had to return to its base in Damascus. They arrived in Damascus on a fact-finding mission on Saturday.

"Our sources, which we consider to be reliable, indicate that the team has not yet been able to enter Douma".

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One finds it unusual that neither Western media nor their governments have bayed for large cruise missile attacks on the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra, or ISIS, or any of the other head-choppers supported by Gulf and Western states.

A new strategy appeared to be crystalizing to let the USA leave Syria without relinquishing its interests to Assad government or his allies, Iran and Russian Federation. The Syrian military would then enter the town. It also showed footage of what it says are weapons handed over to the Syrian military.

Hours earlier, Syrian government-run media said the country's air defenses confronted a new "aggression", shooting down missiles over the central region of Homs and a suburb of Damascus.

Worldwide chemical weapons inspectors do not appear to have visited the site of a suspected attack in Syria after days of delays by Syrian and Russian authorities.

France's former prime minister Manuel Valls backed French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to participate in US-led strikes in Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack, and said that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad should be brought before the International Criminal Court for his "crimes".

The OPCW is investigating reports that government forces gassed sites in Douma on April 7, when the town was still held by rebels and home to tens of thousands of people - residents and others who were displaced by fighting elsewhere.

There was no comment from the OPCW or the United Nations on Wednesday.

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