Syrian security forces have arrested the former head of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre (SSRC), who is accused of overseeing the country’s chemical weapons programme under the former government, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry said Interior Ministry units in the western province of Latakia arrested Colonel Ahmed Habib Ali, a chemical weapons specialist from the town of Harf al-Mseitera in the Qardaha countryside.
According to the statement, he headed the SSRC and was responsible for stockpiles of the sarin compound and chemical weapons production.
The ministry said preliminary investigations indicate that Ali supervised the manufacture of around 20 bombs filled with sarin gas, each weighing about 250 kilograms, which were allegedly used in attacks targeting Syrian towns and cities between 2013 and 2017.
It added that investigations are continuing to document all crimes attributed to the suspect before referring him to the competent judicial authorities.
Sources close to the Interior Ministry told dpa that security forces arrested Ali after a surveillance and intelligence operation. They said his name appeared in documents recovered from several research and chemical weapons facilities following the collapse of the former government.
The former Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad has long been accused by the Syrian opposition and international human rights organizations of using chemical weapons in attacks on the Ghouta region near Damascus, as well as Homs and Idlib, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague has repeatedly determined that the Syrian Air Force was responsible for bombings using sarin and chlorine gas. The al-Assad government has consistently denied the allegations.