DISINFO: OPCW report on Idlib chemical attack does not make sense
SUMMARY
The 2015 OPCW report on the Idlib chemical attack contains a diagram of an alleged chemical bomb consisting of plastic bottles (containing potassium permanganate) and disposable canisters marked R22. It does not mention, however, that using such a device as a bomb would not make sense: the R22 canisters contained not chlorine, but a benign chemical which would have had to be combined with another to become toxic.
This inconsistency casts doubt on the report’s findings.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative denying the Assad regime's responsibility for chemical attacks in Syria, and questioning the integrity of the OPCW.
The segment focuses on a minute detail in the OPCW report and exaggerates its importance by manipulating facts and statements.
It follows neither from the R22 diagram nor from the UN statement that using the device as a weapon "does not make sense." The report by the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Idlib states that the barrel bombs used in the attack consisted of commercially available R22 cylinders and plastic bottles containing potassium permanganate, connected with a detonation cord (p. 68). The UN report (or, more precisely, the report of the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Team [JIT]) does not contradict the FFM's findings, but actually concurs with its assessment of the device, stating that "[m]ixing with the content of the refrigerant containers upon explosion, the potassium permanganate would have generated the chlorine" (p. 81, para 38), which was detected at abnormally high levels in and around the affected areas.