MOSCOW, April 29 (RIA Novosti) – Experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will investigate new allegations of the use of chlorine gas in Syria, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday.
“The Director-General announced the creation of an OPCW mission to establish facts surrounding allegations of use of chlorine in Syria,” the organization said in a statement.
The Syrian government has agreed to accept the mission and will provide security in areas under its control.
The statement says the new mission, established at a meeting of the OPCW Executive Council, "will carry out its work in the most challenging circumstances."
Media reports have claimed that at least two people were killed and about 100 injured in a chlorine gas attack on the militant-held village of Kafr Zeita in Syria’s Hama province in mid-April.
The Syrian government implicated an al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, al-Nusra Front, in the attack. Opposition groups claimed, however, that government planes had bombed the town with explosive barrels that produced thick smoke, causing suffocation and poisoning.
Bashar Jafari, the Syrian envoy to the UN, earlier this week said reports accusing the Syrian government of a chemical weapons attack are aimed at disrupting the planned elections in the country, scheduled for June 3.
