Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, and Vice President for Executive Affairs, Hamid Baghaei

Syria has asked for an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons by foreign-backed militants in the northwestern city of Aleppo which has killed at least 25 people.

According to a statement released by the Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Ja’afari on Wednesday, “the Syrian government has requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to form a specialized and independent and neutral, technical mission to investigate the use by the terrorist groups operating in Syria of chemical weapons against civilians … in Aleppo.”
He added: “The Syrian government, if it has such weapons, will never use it against its own population.”
At least 25 people were killed and 86 others injured after militants fired missiles containing poisonous gases into Aleppo’s Khan al-Assal village. Women and children are reported to be among the victims.
The attack came after Syria’s foreign-backed opposition coalition, known as the Syrian National Coalition, chose a Syrian-born American citizen, Ghassan Hitto, as the prime minister of what it called an interim government.
Syria has blamed countries supporting the militants for the attack, saying not only do such states militarize them, but also plan and take decisions on their behalf.