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 A confidential Oct. 29 report by the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a summary of which was shown
to Reuters, concluded "with the utmost confidence that at least two
people were exposed to sulfur mustard" in the town of Marea, north
of Aleppo, on Aug. 21.
"It is very likely that the effects of sulfur mustard resulted in
the death of a baby," it said.
The findings provide the first official confirmation of use of
sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, in Syria since it
agreed to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, which included
sulfur mustard.
The report did not mention Islamic State, as the fact-finding
mission was not mandated to assign blame, but diplomatic sources
said the chemical had been used in the clashes between Islamic State
and another rebel group taking place in the town at the time.
 "It raises the major question of where the sulfur mustard came
from," one source said. "Either they (IS) gained the ability to make
it themselves, or it may have come from an undeclared stockpile
overtaken by IS. Both are worrying options."
Syria is supposed to have completely surrendered the toxic chemicals
18 months ago. Their use violates U.N. Security Council resolutions
and the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.
The findings were part of three reports released to members of the
OPCW last week. They add to a growing body of evidence that the
Islamic State group has obtained, and is using, chemical weapons in
both Iraq and Syria.
Kurdish authorities said earlier this month that Islamic State
fighters fired mortar rounds containing mustard agent at Kurdish
Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq during clashes in August. They
said blood samples taken from around 35 fighters who were exposed in
the attack southwest of the regional capital of Erbil showed
"signatures" of mustard gas.
A team of OPCW experts has been sent to Iraq to confirm the findings
and is expected to obtain its own samples later this month, one
diplomat said.
ASSAD'S FORCES ALSO UNDER SUSPICION
In the Idlib Province south of Aleppo, another report said, there
were several incidents between March and May of 2015 which "likely
involved the use of one or more toxic chemicals," including
chlorine.
Those attacks, which resulted in the deaths of six people in the
opposition-controlled region, have been blamed on government forces.
"Witnesses reported hearing helicopters overhead at the time the
chemical munitions exploded. Only the Assad regime has helicopters,"
State Department spokesman John Kirby said, referring to President
Bashar al-Assad's government.
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A special session has been called by the OPCW's 41-member Executive
Council to discuss the Syrian findings and it will be held in The
Hague on Nov. 23, sources at the OPCW told Reuters.
Sulfur mustard - which causes severe delayed burns to the eyes, skin
and lungs - is a so-called Schedule 1 chemical agent, meaning it has
few uses outside warfare.
The third report by the OPCW fact-finding mission to Syria said the
team had so far been unable to substantiate claims from the Syrian
government that its forces had been targeted by insurgents using
chemical weapons.
The mission "cannot confidently determine whether or not a chemical
was used as a weapon" by militants in the Jober area on Aug. 29,
2014, it said.
Syria agreed in September 2013 to destroy its entire chemical
weapons program under a deal negotiated with the United States and
Russia after hundreds of people were killed in a sarin gas attack in
the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
The last of 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons declared to the OPCW
was handed over in June, 2014, but several Western governments have
expressed doubt that the government of President Bashar al-Assad
declared its entire arsenal.
With Syria's civil war in its fifth year, chlorine has also been
used illegally in systematic attacks against civilians, the OPCW
found.
A U.N.-OPCW joint investigative mission has been assigned to
determine who was behind those attacks.
The three reports will be formally presented to U.N. Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon later this month.
(Editing by Pravin Char, Janet McBride)
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