Syria chemical weapons probe stalled, U.N. team reportedly shot at

Source: CBS News

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syrian media said international chemical weapons inspectors on Tuesday entered the town of Douma, where an alleged poison gas attack was carried out earlier this month, but a Syrian diplomat said later that only a U.N. security team visited the Damascus suburb. On Wednesday, there were reports that the U.N. team had come under fire in the Damascus suburb.


Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, told the Security Council that the U.N. team went to Douma to decide whether investigators from the international chemical weapons watchdog could safely visit the site. If the team decides "the situation is sound," the fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will start work there Wednesday, Ja'afari said.

There were unconfirmed reports on Wednesday that the OPCW inspectors' visit was delayed because the U.N. security team came under fire as it visited Douma on Tuesday. CBS News partner network BBC News quoted the British delegation to the OPCW at The Hague as saying there was small arms fire and an explosion in Douma on Tuesday as the U.N. team arrived.

French news agency AFP quoted an unnamed U.N. official as saying, "shots were fired at" the U.N. team, but that none were hurt and the team returned to Damascus.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-gas-attack-inspectors-opcw-douma-un-bashar-assad-russia/