OPCW: No Grounds ISIS’ 2017 Attack in Syria Involved Chemicals

The Palestinian Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, in December 2020 (EPA)
The Palestinian Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, in December 2020 (EPA)
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OPCW: No Grounds ISIS’ 2017 Attack in Syria Involved Chemicals

The Palestinian Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, in December 2020 (EPA)
The Palestinian Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, in December 2020 (EPA)

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Monday there were “no reasonable grounds” to conclude that a 2017 “attack” in Syria blamed on ISIS contained chemical weapons.

OPCW said Damascus in November 2017 reported “use of toxic chemicals in an attack by the terrorist organization ISIS against another terrorist group called Aknaf Beit Almaqdis.”

The alleged attack took place at the sprawling Yarmouk district in Damascus in October that year.

It resulted in several cases of breathing difficulties “and loss of consciousness in the ranks of Aknaf terrorist group,” Damascus told the OPCW.

But the Hague-based body said after investigating, its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) concluded that “there are no reasonable grounds to determine that toxic chemicals were used as a weapon in the reported incident.”

Set up in 2014, the FFM investigates the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but it cannot identify the perpetrators behind the attacks.

The OPCW's investigators based their findings on chemical sample analyses, interviews with witnesses, video and photo evidence and documents and correspondence with the Syrian government.

“The samples analysis results provided no indication that chemicals were used as a weapon,” the OPCW said in a statement.

“There was no detection of the presence of scheduled chemicals, their precursors and, or their degradation products, nor of riot control agents, chlorinated organic chemicals or compounds containing chemically reactive chlorine,” it said.

The FFM also tried to interview witnesses who were present “in areas of interest at the time of the reported incident.”

This was unsuccessful because several witnesses had died, or were missing, while others who had initially agreed to provide testimony “ultimately declined to provide their account of the events to the FFM,” the OPCW said.

The war in Syria has killed more than half a million people since it erupted in March 2011.

Syria agreed in 2013 to join the OPCW, shortly after an alleged chemical gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.

But the global watchdog had since accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime of continuing to attack civilians with chemical weapons in the Middle East country's brutal civil war.

Damascus denies the charges.



Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
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Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Meets HTS Leader in Damascus

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Ministry headquarters in the Turkish capital Ankara Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP)

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Türkiye’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.

Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, which led the operation to topple Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walking ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.

The two are also seen shaking hands, hugging, and smiling.

On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Türkiye would help Syria's new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.

Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Türkiye’s MIT intelligence agency, also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after Assad's fall.

Ankara had for years backed opposition fighters looking to oust Assad and welcomed the end of his family's brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Türkiye also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes will start returning home after Assad's fall, and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.

Fidan's visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Türkiye-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.

Earlier, Türkiye’s defense minister said Ankara believed that Syria's new leadership, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) armed group which Ankara backs, will drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.

Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.

The SDF has been on the back foot since Assad's fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Türkiye-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria's new rulers being friendly to Ankara.