Breaking: OPCW will travel to Douma to investigate reported chemical weapons attack

The international chemical weapons watchdog will send a fact-finding mission to Douma, Syria, to investigate the reports of an attack there. The move follows calls from Moscow and Damascus to launch an international investigation.

“Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement on Tuesday.

No further details were released.

The OPCW’s announcement came just hours after the Syrian government officially invited them to investigate the Douma attack.