Plastic gloves and face masks lay scattered in the rubble of a Syrian research lab destroyed by Western strikes on Saturday, where an official denied the centre was developing chemical weapons. The bombardment, including both cruise missiles and air-to-surface strikes, hit Syria around 4:00 am on Saturday (0100 GMT), jolting people awake in the capital’s nearby residential neighbourhoods. “As we work in civilian pharmaceutical and chemical research, we did not expect that we would be hit,” he said. “If there were chemical weapons, we would not be able to stand here. Said said the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had visited the site in Barzeh in recent years and had declared it free of any toxic weapons.

Source: Hindustan Times April 14, 2018 17:15 UTC