(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Russian scientific analysis indicates a deadly projectile that hit a suburb of the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19 contained the nerve agent sarin and was most likely fired by rebels, Russia's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.
The incident at Khan Al Assal in the northern province of Aleppo killed more than two dozen people. Both the government and rebels have blamed each other for what they say was an attack involving chemical weapons. Both sides also deny using chemical weapons.
Moscow's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Russian experts visited the location where the projectile struck and took their own samples of material from the site. Those samples, he said, were then analyzed at a Russian laboratory certified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Churkin said he had informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the Russian findings. Ban is scheduled to meet Ake Sellstrom, the Swedish scientist heading a U.N. team established to investigate allegations of chemical weapon use in Syria, in New York this week.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States had not seen any evidence to suggest anyone other than the Syrian government "had the ability to use chemical weapons, or has used chemical weapons."
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So far, Sellstrom's team has not travelled to Syria. Ban wants Sellstrom to have unfettered access to investigate all alleged chemical attacks while Assad's government wants the U.N. experts to confine their investigation to the March 19 incident.
"We need to have a full-fledged investigation by the U.N. into all the allegations in Syria," said French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud. "Sellstrom has to go to all the sites of the allegations to investigate."
Churkin said the projectile used to deliver sarin on March 19 was constructed by rebels fighting to oust Assad. The United Nations estimates that over 90,000 people have died in Syria's two-year civil war.
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