French intelligence blames sarin attack on Assad forces

French intelligence hasconcluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assadcarried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northernSyria and that Assad or members of his inner circle ordered thestrike, a declassified report showed.

The chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhounkilled scores of people, according to a war monitor, Syrianopposition groups and Western countries. It prompted the UnitedStates to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base,its first deliberate assault on the Assad government in thesix-year-old conflict.

Assad has said in two media interviews since April 4 thatthe evidence of a poison gas attack was false and denied hisgovernment had ever used chemical weapons.

The six-page French document drawn up by France's militaryand foreign intelligence services and seen by Reuters said itreached its conclusion based on samples they had obtained fromthe impact strike on the ground, and a blood sample from avictim.

"We know, from a certain source, that the process offabrication of the samples taken is typical of the methoddeveloped in Syrian laboratories," Foreign Minister Jean-MarcAyrault told reporters after presenting the findings to thecabinet.

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"This method is the signature of the regime and it is whatenables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. Weknow because we kept samples from previous attacks that we wereable to use for comparison."

Among the elements found in the samples were hexamine, ahallmark of sarin produced by the Syrian government, accordingto the report.

It said the findings matched the results of samples obtainedby French intelligence, including an unexploded grenade, from anattack in Saraqib on April 29, 2013, which Western powers haveaccused the Assad government of carrying out.

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The report also said intelligence services were aware of aSyrian government Sukhoi 22 warplane that had struck six timeson Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 and that samples taken from theground were consistent with an airborne projectile that hadmunitions loaded with sarin.

"The French intelligence services consider that only Basharal-Assad and some of his most influential entourage can give theorder to use chemical weapons," the report said.

It added that jihadist groups in the area did not have thecapacity to develop and launch such an attack and that ISIS was not in the region.

Assad's assertion that the attack was fabricated, was "notcredible" given the mass flows of casualties in a short space oftime arriving in Syrian and Turkish hospitals as well as thesheer quantity of social media posts and video showing peoplewith neurotoxic symptoms, said the report.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weaponssaid on April 19 sarin or a similar banned toxin was used in theKhan Sheikhoun attack, but it is not mandated to assign blame.

Russia, which backs Assad in the conflict that has killedhundreds of thousands and displaced millions, has said the gashad been released by an airstrike on a poison gas storage depotcontrolled by rebels.