OPCW mission confirms sarin used in Idlib attack

The Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the banned nerve agent sarin was used in an attack in northern Syria in April that killed dozens of people, a report from a fact-finding team showed.

After interviewing witnesses and examining samples, a fact- finding mission (FFM) of the OPCW concluded that "a large number of people, some of whom died, were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance.

"It is the conclusion of the FFM that such a release can only be determined as the use of sarin, as a chemical weapon," Reuters cited a summary of the report as saying.

The attack on April 4 in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province was the most deadly in Syria's civil war in more than three years. It prompted a U.S. missile strike against a Syrian air base which Washington said was used to launch the strike.