Reuters reported the Syrian “White Helmets” rescue organisation has pinpointed for international inspectors the places where the victims of the suspected chemical weapons attack on April 7 are buried, according to its head Raed Saleh.
Reports of the attack prompted Western air strikes against Syria on Saturday, but the Syrian government backed by its close ally Russia denies either using or possessing such weapons.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) sent a team to Syria at the weekend to examine the site of the alleged attack.
“We have handed to the fact-finding mission of the OPCW all the information we gathered about the chemical attack, including the exact burial place of the victims,” Saleh, who is based in Turkey, told Reuters via a messaging service.
The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples, interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. But, more than a week after the suspected attack, hard evidence might be hard to trace.
Saleh said bodies had been buried quickly because of heavy bombardment and the location of graves was kept secret to prevent any doctoring of evidence.
Saleh said the situation in the battered eastern Ghouta city had been catastrophic since the day before the attack due to continuous bombardment, meaning they had had no time to identify victims in a proper way and document their deaths, according to Reuters report.
“The priority was to bury the dead as soon as possible,” he said.