OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria is a mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate possible use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, in Syria. The OPCW-Director General Ahmet Üzümcü announced the creation of the mission on 29 April 2014. This initial mission was headed by Malik Ellahi. The Syrian Government has agreed to the mission.

2014
On 16 June 2014 the mission published its first summary report(S/1191/2014), covering the period from 3 to 31 May 2014. Its second report(S/1212/2014) was circulated to States Parties on 10 September 2014. Its third report (S/1230/2014) was dated 18 December 2014.

During its first visit in Syria, the mission attempted on May 27 to conduct one field visit to Kafr Zita (Hama Governorate), held by the opposition, where chlorine gas was allegedly used for an attack on May 19, departing from government held Homs. It aborted the mission after its "leading vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device", another vehicle was "attacked with automatic gun fire" and "the remaining two vehicles were intercepted by armed gunmen and members of the team detained for some time." The mission interviewed between 25 August and 5 September, in a safe location out of Syria, 37 witness of chlorine attacks of the villages of Talmenes (Idlib Governorate, 21 and 24 April 2014), Al-Tamanah (Idlib Governorate, 12, 18, and 30 April, 22 and 25 May 2014), and Kafr Zita (14 attacks from 10 April to 30 August 2014). The third report presents the conclusions and evidences obtained from the interviewees. It estimates that those attacks were made with barrel bombs thrown from helicopters and killed 13 people (3 in Talmenes, 8 in Al-Tamanah, and 2 in Kafr Zita).

2015
A further three missions were initiated by OPCW in 2015. These were headed by different personnel and the reports passed through Ban Ki-Moon by Ahmet Üzümcü to the President of the Security Council in November 2015 (S/2015/908). The reports (S/1318/2015, S/1319/2015, and S/1320/2015, all dated 29 October 2015) were titled "Interim report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria regarding the incidents described in communications from the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the Head of the National Authority of the Syrian Arab Republic from 15 December 2014 to 15 June 2015", led by Steven Wallis, "Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Regarding Alleged Incidents in the Idlib Governorate of the Syrian Arab Republic between 16 March and 20 May 2015", dated 20 October 2015 led by Leonard Phillips and "Report of the OPCW fact-finding mission in Syria regarding alleged incidents in Marea, Syrian Arab Republic August 2015".

2017
he OPCW expressed "serious concern" over the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack and said that its Fact-Finding Mission in Syria was "gathering and analysing information from all available sources." The following day, the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW, referring to the media reports, requested all member states of the Chemical Weapons Convention to share available information on what it described preliminary as "allegations of use of chemical weapons in the Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib province in the Syrian Arab Republic."

The OPCW declared on 19 April that lab results "indicate that the victims were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance."