Carla del Ponte said testimonies gathered by the UN said rebels in Syria had used chemical weapons.
GENEVA: UN war crimes investigators have reached no conclusions on whether any side in the Syrian war has used chemical weapons, the inquiry commission said yesterday, playing down a suggestion from one of the team that rebel forces had done so.
Investigator Carla Del Ponte caught UN officials by surprise on Sunday when she said the commission had gathered testimony from casualties and medical staff indicating that rebel forces had used the banned nerve agent sarin.
“The independent international Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict,” it said in a statement.
President Bashar Al Assad’s government and the rebels whom his forces have been fighting for more than two years accuse each other of carrying out three chemical weapon attacks in March and December, in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said late last month there was limited but growing evidence the banned arms had been used.
Bolstering that evidence, a diplomatic source told Reuters yesterday soil samples from Syria have tested positive at Britain’s Porton Down military facility for sarin — though it was not clear where the samples came from. REUTERS
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