UN to blame Assad for chemical attack, report says

An investigative team from the UN has gathered what it is terming a “wealth of evidence” indicating that Syrian President Bashar Assad was responsible for an August 21 chemical attack that the US says killed over 1,400 people, Foreign Policy Magazine reported late Wednesday.

The investigators will present their findings on Monday to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, offering strong circumstantial evidence that government forces were responsible for the deadly attack. The report is based on the team’s examination of spent rocket casings, ammunition, and soil, blood, and urine test samples, according to the report, but will stop short of directly accusing Assad of perpetrating the attack on his own people.

Assad has denied all along responsibility for the attack, claiming that opposition forces were behind the August chemical weapons attack and similar, smaller-scale attacks earlier this year.

Asher Zeiger