THE HAGUE: The world鈥檚 chemical watchdog said Monday it was reviewing security ahead of a possible probe into an alleged chemical attack in Syria鈥檚 regime-held city of Aleppo over the weekend.
Damascus formally requested the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague investigate the alleged attack on Saturday which Syrian officials and rights groups said left scores of people struggling to breathe.
Both the Syrian regime and its ally Russia have blamed 鈥渢errorist groups鈥� 鈥� a term which Damascus uses to mean both rebels and militants.
The alleged attack also prompted Russia to launch retaliatory air strikes into a planned buffer zone near the last major opposition stronghold of Idlib.
鈥淭he OPCW Secretariat has been monitoring the situation,鈥� said director-general Fernando Arias.
It has contacted the UN鈥檚 security department 鈥渋n order to assess the security situation on the ground for a possible deployment of the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) to Syria,鈥� the OPCW director-general said.
The body鈥檚 Secretariat implements the OPCW鈥檚 verification measures while the FFM, set up in 2014, investigates all allegations of chemical weapons use in war-torn Syria.
鈥淭he OPCW鈥檚 experts will continue to work independently to verify all allegations of the use of chemicals as weapons in Syria,鈥� Arias told delegates at a nine-day conference to review the world body鈥檚 strategy for the next five years.
Syria again Monday blamed 鈥渁rmed terrorist groups鈥� for launching a toxic gas attack which it said left around 100 Syrians hospitalized with breathing difficulties.
鈥淚t is believed that the agent used was chlorine,鈥� said Bassam Al-Sabbagh, Syria鈥檚 permanent representative to the OPCW.
鈥淲e have discussed the potential of launching an investigation into this attack to find out what exactly happened in the city of Aleppo,鈥� he told the delegates.
Russia said the shelling came from an area of the buffer zone controlled by the jihadist-dominated Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) alliance.
A rebel coalition has denied any involvement, but neither the HTS, nor the Al-Qaeda-linked Hurras Al-Deen group present in the area have commented on Saturday鈥檚 alleged attack.
It was the latest accusation of a chemical attack in Syria鈥檚 grinding seven-year civil war, which has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions.