On Saturday the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed on Twitter that its fact-finding mission team "visited one of the sites" in Douma "to collect samples for analysis in connection with allegations of chemical weapons use on 7 April 2018."
The collected samples will be sent to OPCW’s laboratory in Rijswijk, Netherlands and then "dispatched for analysis to the OPCW’s designated labs," the mission said in a statement.
The watchdog said it would "evaluate the situation and consider future steps including another possible visit to Douma."
The OPCW team departed for the city in Eastern Ghouta 11 days after Damascus sent a formal request to the watchdog to inspect the area, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"Such delays in such a resonating case, regardless of the motives, are unacceptable, since not only the Syrian side but the Russian military [stationed in Syria] guaranteed the security of the OPCW team," she stated.
Moscow expects the OPCW to investigate the alleged chemical incident impartially. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds...
the mission’s plans to visit fewer sites linked to the purported attack and interview fewer witnesses raises "serious concerns," Zakharova said. According to the spokeswoman, these plans only "demonstrate the unwillingness to shed light on yet another staged provocation with the use of chemicals, which served as a reason for the missile strike" by the US, UK, and La Belle France.
Chemical substance of hexamine found in Douma laboratory -- Russian MoD
[ALMASDARNEWS] Russian broadcaster VGTRK released video on Friday showing an alleged chemical laboratory in Douma, suspected of belonging to Death Eater group Jaish al-Islam
...Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) was established by Zahran Alloush, the son of Saudi-based religious scholar Abdullah Mohammed Alloush, after Syrian authorities released him from prison in mid-2011 where he had been serving time for his Salafist activism. The group claimed responsibility for carrying out the July 2012 Damascus bombing that killed Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, Deputy Defense Minister Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani. It was a driving force behind actions in the Damascus region. It cooperated and conducted joint operations with al-Nusra. In Sptember 2013 Saudi Arabia engineered Liwa al-Islam's merger with fifty other more or less Salafist groups as a counterweight to al-Nusra, which the Learned Elders of Islam considered was growing too powereful...According to Russian Defence Ministry’s military expert on radiation, chemical, and biological protection, Alexander Rodionov, "the specialists from radiation, chemical and biological protection’s corpses conducted extra examination in the chemical laboratory discovered in Douma."
He went on to say that "they discovered a lot of the chemical substance of hexamine that can be used for production of explosives as well as for synthesis of the poisonous substance sarin."
Several Western powers, led by the United States, claimed chemical substances were used by Syrian government forces on April 7. The claim has been denied by Damascus and Moscow, who called the allegations a "fabrication."
On April 14 the US, UK and La Belle France launched
s against multiple government targets in Damascus as a response to the alleged chemical attack against Syrian civilians.