OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu has told a meeting at the OPCW headquarters in The Hague that the UN security team was forced to retreat, delaying the arrival of chemical weapons inspectors due to visit the site.
The UN team had reportedly arrived in the town to see if it was safe enough to start investigating an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government. When they were shot at, they decided to withdraw from the city, according to Uzumcu.
Earlier, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja'afari stated the UN security team had traveled to the Syrian town of Douma on April 17 ahead of a planned visit by the international chemical weapons experts on April 18 to look into the suspected chemical weapons attack, according to Sputnik.