Syria strikes - as it happened: UN security team shot at in Douma, says chemical weapons watchdog

Inspectors' access to site still being delayed, reports say

Corbyn leads debate into Parliament vote on Syria strikes: 'The government is attempting to overturn a democratic advance'

A UN security team came under fire in Syria while doing reconnaissance for inspectors to visit sites of a suspected chemical weapons attack, and officials said it was no longer clear when the inspectors would be able to go in.

The inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are in Syria to investigate an April 7 incident in which Western countries and rescue workers say scores of civilians were gassed to death by government forces.

OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü said the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) had decided to carry out reconnaissance at two sites in the town of Douma before the inspectors would visit them.

“On arrival at site one, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw,” he told a meeting at the watchdog’s headquarters in remarks it later released. “At site two, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus.”

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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis blamed the Syrian government for delays in inspectors reaching the sites and said it has a history of trying to “clean up the evidence before the investigation team gets in.”

“We are very much aware of the delay that the regime imposed on that delegation but we are also very much aware of how they have operated in the past and seal what they have done using chemical weapons,” Mr Mattis said before the start of a meeting with his counterpart from Qatar.

The United States, Britain and France fired missiles at Syrian targets on Saturday in retaliation for the suspected chemical use. They say the arrival of the inspectors is being held up by Syrian authorities who now control the area, and that evidence of the chemical attack may be being destroyed.

Damascus and its ally Moscow deny that any gas attack took place, that they are holding up the inspections or that they have tampered with evidence at the site. Britain’s ambassador to the OPCW Peter Wilson said it was now unclear when the inspectors would be able to reach it.

The rebel group based in Douma announced its surrender hours after the suspected chemical attack, and the last rebels left a week later, hours after the Western retaliation strikes.

The US-led intervention has threatened to escalate confrontation between the West and Bashar al-Assad’s backer Russia, although it has had no impact on the fighting on the ground, in which pro-government forces have pressed on with a campaign to crush the rebellion.

Mr Assad is now in his strongest position since the early months of a seven-year-old civil war that has killed more than 500,000 people and driven more than half of Syrians from their homes.

The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples, interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. But, more than a week after the suspected attack, hard evidence might be hard to trace.

An official close to the Syrian government said the UN security team had been met by protesters demonstrating against the US-led strikes.

“It was a message from the people,” said the official. The mission “will continue its work”, the official said.

Douma was the last town to hold out in the besieged eastern Ghouta enclave, the last big rebel bastion near the capital Damascus. Eastern Ghouta was captured by a government advance over the past two months.

Syria’s UN ambassador said on Tuesday the fact-finding mission would begin its work in Douma on Wednesday if the U.N. security team deemed the situation there safe.

The Syrian “White Helmets” rescue organisation, which operates in rebel-held areas, has pinpointed for the OPCW team the places where victims of the suspected attack are buried, its head Raed Saleh said on Wednesday.

Douma hospital workers who stayed in the town after the army recaptured it have said that none of the people injured on the night of the attack were exposed to chemical weapons.

Reuters

Key Points

• Russian foreign minister to hold talks with UN's Syria peace envoy
• Greater US military involvement 'not going to happen', says senator
• More diplomatic clashes in UN Security Council meeting

[18 April 2018 18:26 · Harriet Agerholm]

Thousands of Palestinian refugees near the Syrian capital are trapped in "rapidly deteriorating" conditions without running water or doctors and little food, the UN said as the Syrian army prepared to capture the area.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid to Palestinian refugees, reported overnight shelling on Tuesday as Syrian forces prepared for an assault on the last area outside their control near Damascus.

"The humanitarian situation in Yarmouk and surrounding areas has long been very harsh and is rapidly deteriorating," UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said, referring to Syria's biggest camp for Palestinian refugees since the mid-20th century.

"Supplies of food and medicine are running low. There is no running water and very little electricity. Healthcare options are limited and there are no doctors remaining in the area."

Recovering Yarmouk camp, which has been under the control of Islamic militants for several years, and neighbouring areas south of the city would give President Bashar al-Assad complete control over Damascus, further consolidating his grip on power.

Many residents have fled the area, which has been besieged by pro-government forces since the early days of the seven-year-old civil war that has killed more than 500,000 people and driven more than half of Syrians from their homes.

UNRWA said refugees in Yarmouk camp make up about half of some 12,000 civilians trapped in the area.

Checkpoints into the camp have been closed for most of the last month, cutting off its lifeline, Mr Gunness said.

"Things were appalling even before this current upsurge of violence," he said, calling for more access to distribute aid and to evacuate people who wish to leave.

The camp was home to some 160,000 Palestinians before the Syrian conflict began in 2011, refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's founding, and their descendants.

Mr Assad is now in his strongest position since the early months of the war, with his Russian-backed forces on the offensive with the goal of recapturing the entire country.

Reuters

The United States, Britain and France launched strikes against Assad's government on Saturday in retaliation for what they say was a poison gas attack on April 7 that killed scores of people in Douma, a former rebel-held enclave near Damascus.

Damascus and Moscow have both denied using poison gas.

[18 April 2018 20:10 · Harriet Agerholm]

The United Nations says further steps are needed to secure the suspected site of a chemical attack in Douma and a security team will need to make another visit before a fact-finding mission can go there. 

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday the measures are needed in view of the small arms fire and explosive device detonated during a visit by the UN advance team Tuesday. 

Asked when the UN security team would make another visit, he said, "as soon as practicable".

Mr Dujarric told reporters at UN headquarters in New York that "there is still a lot of volatility in the area". 

[18 April 2018 20:21 · Harriet Agerholm]

That's all from The Independent's live coverage of the situation in Syria for today, thank you for following.