DOUMA: Chemical weapons inspectors have entered the Syrian town of Douma to probe an alleged poison gas attack, according to the state-run SANA news agency.
The delegation from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) entered the town near the capital, Damascus, along with the Syrian health minister on Tuesday, a source close to the government told Germany’s DPA news agency.
“What we understand is that they are going to inspect and investigate the site of that alleged chemical weapons attack,” said Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon.
“They are going to take samples and talk to witnesses, doctors and people who were there,” she added.
The reported toxic gas attack on Douma on April 7 sparkedájoint missile strikes by the United States, France and Britain on Syrian military installations.
The punitive attacks early on Saturday were launched before a fact-finding team from the OPCW was able to enter Douma and begin its fieldwork.
Earlier on Tuesday, the mission had appeared in question.
During an emergency meeting on Monday at theáOPCW’sáheadquarters in The Hague, Western diplomats accused theáSyrian government and its Russian ally of blocking the team, which arrived in Damascus on Saturday.
Russiaádenied the claims, saying parts of Douma still needed to be de-mined and said the watchdog’s inspectors would enter on Wednesday.
Yet, France and the US appeared to questionáthe purposeáof such a mission, warning that any incriminating evidence had likely been removed by now.
“It is highly likely that evidence and essential elements disappear from the site, which is completely controlled by the Russian and Syrian armies,” the French foreign ministry said.
