Khan Shaykhun was one of the many areas targeted by Assad with chemical weapons [Getty]
More than 100 suspected chemical weapons sites are believed to remain in Syria following the collapse of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)—a number significantly higher than Assad ever acknowledged during his rule.Â
According to several informed sources cited by The New York Times, the current government allowed an OPCW team into the country this year to begin documenting the sites.
The international organisation said it arrived at the updated figure based on external researchers, non-profit organisations, and shared intelligence from member states. According to former staff members, researchers, and other experts, some of the sites may be hidden in caves or other locations that are difficult to detect using satellite imagery.
The sites are suspected of having been involved in the manufacture or storage of chemical weapons during the reign of the deposed regime. Assad used sarin gas and chlorine against opposition fighters and civilians since the uprising began in 2011.
Following a deal reached between the US and Russia after the Ghouta sarin gas massacre of August 2013, the Assad regime declared the existence of 27 sites to the OPCW, which sent inspectors to visit and shut them down.
However, Assad continued to use chemical weapons until at least 2018, most notably the Douma massacre that killed at least 49 people.Â
Locating and securing these sites is considered critically important for reasons beyond security. International organisations hope that chemical evidence could answer key questions about the Assad regime’s research, as well as potentially aid in international prosecutions for the use of the prohibited weapons.
“There are many sites we know nothing about because the former regime lied to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” Raed al-Saleh, the former head of the Syrian Civil Defence (White Helmets) and currently Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management in the new government, told the NYT.
Nidal Shekhani, head of the Syrian Centre for Chemical Violations Documentation — who has worked with the OPCW for years — stated that his group has identified dozens of new sites that may have served as chemical weapons stockpiles or former research facilities. This assessment is based on interviews with former Syrian government scientists now living in Europe.
A former Syrian government chemist, speaking to the NYT on condition of anonymity, said that the country’s chemical weapons program began in the 1970s with the help of hundreds of government scientists, many of whom had been trained in Germany and other parts of Europe. He noted that many of them fled the country during the war, but others remained in Syria.
Although the new Syrian government has signalled cooperation with the OPCW and affirmed its commitment to international law, the presence of chemical materials remains a key test. Poorly secured sites risk falling into the hands of armed groups, and the government’s failure to appoint an OPCW ambassador has raised doubts about its full commitment.
On 8 February, interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa welcomed an OPCW delegation led by Director-General Fernando Arias in Damascus.
Syria also joined the organisation’s Executive Council meeting in The Hague for the first time in March, where Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani pledged to destroy any remnants of Assad-era chemical weapons.
