UK, US condemn Syrian regime for using chemical weapons in Douma

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK and the US on Saturday condemned Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime after a report found it responsible for the 2018 chlorine attack on Douma city which left 43 people dead.

The report released by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that an Assad regime military helicopter targeted a residential area in the city with two cylinders loaded with chlorine gas.

Douma city is the provincial capital of the Rif Dimashq province and is located some 10 kilometers (around 7 miles) northeast of Damascus.

"The report refutes the Russian claim that it was an opposition attack," said the joint statement by the foreign ministers of the UK, the US, Germany and France.

"Our governments condemn in the strongest terms the Syrian regime’s repeated use of these horrific weapons and remain steadfast in our demands that the Assad regime immediately comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Syria must fully declare and destroy its chemical weapons program and allow the deployment of OPCW staff to its country to verify it has done so," the statement said.

The ministers also accused Russian military police of helping the Assad regime, saying "no amount of disinformation from the Kremlin can hide its hand in abetting the Assad regime."

"In the aftermath of Syria’s chemical attack on Apr. 7, 2018, Russian military police helped the Syrian regime obstruct OPCW access to the site of the attack and attempted to sanitize the site. Russian and Syrian troops also staged photographs later disseminated online in an attempt to support its fabricated narratives of this incident," the statement said.