The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) has said, it is trying to make arrangements for the fact-finding experts of Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to travel to Douma in Syria at the earliest.
It said they were negotiating with Syrian and Russian authorities for international chemical inspectors to deploy to the site of an alleged toxic gas attack near Damascus after a reconnaissance mission came under fire. OPCW said, safety fears had hampered plans for the experts to travel to Douma, where dozens were killed in the suspected gas attack earlier this month.
It said, the UN security team came under fire and there was an explosion after it entered one of the sites. The OPCW sent a fact-finding team to Syria on Saturday and the mission was expected to begin investigations as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who is in Qatar for a meeting with his counterpart, said that the Syrian government is responsible for delays in inspectors reaching sites of a suspected chemical weapons attack.
Source: AIR