Chemical watchdog has 'ongoing' probe into Syria attack

THE HAGUE, Netherlands  - The world's chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday it has opened an "ongoing investigation" into the suspected chemical attack in Syria that killed at least 86 people.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it has "initiated contact with the Syrian authorities" and is requesting information about Tuesday's attack on Khan Sheikhun.

"This is an ongoing investigation," the OPCW said in a statement.

It also asked all states which have signed the Chemical Weapons Convention to "share any information they may have regarding the allegations of chemical weapons use" in the attack in Syria's war-torn Idlib province. 

The request is part of a fact-finding mission which will draw up a report on the attack, to be submitted to the OPCW's executive council and its state parties.

At least 86 people, including 27 children, were killed in Khan Sheikhun and over 500 others wounded. Results from post-mortems performed on victims point to possible exposure to the banned nerve agent sarin, according to Turkish health officials.

Britain, France and the United States have asked the UN Security Council to hold a vote later Thursday on a resolution demanding an investigation of the suspected chemical attack, diplomats said.

It remained unclear, however, whether Russia would support the measure, which was slightly revised following negotiations over the past two days.

Set up in 1997 to eliminate chemical weapons, the OPCW has deployed a fact-finding mission on "numerous occasions" to Syria since 2014 to monitor allegations of the use of toxic arms.

In a report to the Security Council in March, OPCW director general Ahmet Uzumcu said "eight incidents of alleged use of chemical weapons have been recorded since the beginning of 2017 and are currently being analyzed", without saying where they were.

Fact-finding missions were already investigating incidents in eastern Aleppo city, western Rif Aleppo, South Homs and North Hama, Rif Damashq and Idlib, the report said.

Last year, the OPCW said chlorine bombs had been dropped on at least three villages in Syria in 2014 and 2015, after which a UN-led investigation concluded the Syrian air force had been behind the attacks.

The investigative panel also found that the Islamic State group was behind the use of mustard gas in a 2015 attack in Syria.

Syria agreed in a landmark 2013 deal to hand over all its previously-undeclared stock of chemical weapons for destruction by the OPCW.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons in the civil war that has killed 310,000 people since March 2011. — Agence France-Presse