Six Syria weapons inspectors, five others kidnapped
A convoy of chemical weapons inspectors and UN staff that was travelling to a site of an alleged chlorine gas attack in Syria has come under attack.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said they were all safe and well, and were travelling back to their operating base.
The Syrian government earlier said they had been seized by “terrorists” as they travelled through Hama province.
OPCW director general, Ahmet Uzumcu, expressed his concern for their safety.
“Our inspectors are in Syria to establish the facts in relation to persistent allegations of chlorine gas attacks,” he said in a statement.
“Their safety is our primary concern, and it is imperative that all parties to the conflict grant them safe and secure access.”
The inspectors were trying to reach the rebel-held village of Kafr Zaita, where there have been six alleged chlorine attacks in two months.
Last week, activists released a video purportedly showing men and children being treated in a field hospital after a bomb containing chlorine was dropped by a government aircraft, killing a teenager. Many victims in the footage were lying down and one man appeared unresponsive.
Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use as a weapon is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria signed the treaty last year after the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack on several suburbs of Damascus that killed hundreds of people.
