Sarin nerve agent was used in an ‘incident’ at a northern Syrian village in late March, five days before the deadly attack on Khan Sheikhun, the world’s chemical watchdog.
“Analysis of samples collected (by the OPCW)… relates to an incident that took place again in the northern part of Syria on the 30th of March this year,” the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told AFP in an interview.
“The results prove the existence of sarin,” Ahmet Uzumcu said.
The Khan Sheikhun attack on April 4 was previously believed to have been the first use of sarin since the deadly August 2013 attack in and around Damascus which killed hundreds of people.
But Uzumcu said sarin was used in the opposition-held village of Latamneh, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Khan Sheikhun on March 30.
“What we know at the moment is not much. Fifty people were reportedly injured. There were no deaths reported,” he said.
He said the OPCW’s fact-finding mission had retrieved soil samples, clothing and metal parts “which were sent to our laboratories and we received the results a few days ago”.
It is “worrying that there is some sarin use or exposure even before the April 4 incident,” he said.
