UN security team visits Douma to assess safety ahead of OPCW probe – Syria envoy

UN security experts have visited the town of Douma to assess the safety of the Damascus suburb before OPCW experts are scheduled to visit the scene of an alleged chemical attack on Wednesday, UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari has told the UN Security Council. A team of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will begin their probe if UN security experts clear the area for inspection, the ambassador said. The team of UN inspectors arrived in Syria earlier this week, but its deployment on the ground in the Damascus suburb was slowed down by “security concerns.” The alleged chemical weapons attack on April 7 was used by the US, Britain and France as a pretext to justify a series of airstrikes last weekend against targets they’d identified as part of Syria’s chemical weapons program.