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S/2016/738 52/98 16-14788 Annex V Al-Tamanah, 29-30 April 2014 Findings of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic 1. The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) concluded that the information collected constituted “a compelling confirmation that a toxic chemical was used as a weapon, systematically and repeatedly, in the villages of Talm[e]nes, Al-Tamanah, and Kafr Z[i]ta in northern Syria. The descriptions, physical properties, behaviour of the gas, and signs and symptoms resulting from exposure, as well as the response of the patients to the treatment, leads the FFM to conclude, with a high degree of confidence, that chlorine, either pure or in mixture, is the toxic chemical in question”. (S/2015/138, page 24, paragraph 29) 2. “The dates recounted are 12, 18, and 30 April 2014, and 22 and 25 May 2014. All attacks, except the one of 22 May 2014, occurred at night. These attacks resulted in more than 150 casualties, and eight of the most severely affected, mostly women and children, died from exposure to lethal doses of the toxic chemical.” (S/2015/138, page 20, paragraph 10) 3. Among the five dates the witnesses recalled was an incident in the night from 29 to 30 April, resulting in 35 casualties. (S/2015/138, Table 4 on page 43) The Mechanism’s Investigation Background 4. Al-Tamanah (Idlib Governorate, Ma’arrat al-Nu’man District) is located less than 9 km east of the M5 Damascus-Aleppo motorway, on the section between the cities of Hama and Idlib. The FFM reported that, in 2014, approximately 20,000 inhabitants lived in the vicinity of Al-Tamanah, as compared to 7,385 in town and 29,144 in the sub-district in the 2004 census. This included 5,000 to 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). According to a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in August 2014, 5,500 IDPs were in need of humanitarian assistance in the Al-Tamanah sub-district. 5. At the time of the incidents, Al-Tamanah found itself in immediate proximity to the front line. While several armed opposition groups operated from the vicinity of Al-Tamanah, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic held checkpoints and bases along the M5 motorway and Khan Shaykhun in the west of Al-Tamanah. 6. The first half of 2014 in Idlib saw clashes between the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and armed opposition groups around the M5. The armed opposition groups were aiming at — and partly succeeding in — opening their access to Idlib city and cutting Government supply to their military bases. Morek (approximately 10 km to the south-south-west of Al-Tamanah) had been captured by armed opposition group in February 2014, since then been contested and reportedly recaptured by Government forces on 14 April 2014