U.S. officials are demanding an investigation into whether Turkey used white phosphorus on civilians during the attack on Syrian Kurdish militias, in violation of the international law banning chemical weapons.
“There were accusations of war crimes, which must be addressed,” Kay Bailey Hutchison, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told reporters Wednesday. “We cannot stand for that. We feel that that should be investigated and it should be a fair investigation under an international, under the auspices of the appropriate international body.
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Turkish forces have been suspected of using white phosphorus since last week when the Kurdish Red Crescent released photos of children who appear to have been burned by a chemical agent. The allegations raise the prospect of a new dispute between NATO allies over human rights, in the same conflict in which President Trump has authorized two airstrikes to punish Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons.
“On the war crimes, we are looking into those allegations,” James Jeffrey, the State Department’s point man for the Syria crisis, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. “We’ve sent a high-level démarche to Ankara demanding an explanation.”
Turkish authorities have denied the charge. “It is a fact known by everyone that there are no chemical weapons in the inventory of the Turkish armed forces,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said last week.
White phosphorus is not a chemical weapon per se, because it can be used for legal purposes such as to create smokescreens. But the treaty does ban the use of “incendiary weapons” against civilians. That treaty makes for a complicated review of the allegations, the diplomat cautioned.
“White phosphorus is tricky, because,” Jeffrey reminded lawmakers, “it has military uses, and you have to almost determine, not what happened, but what the intent was. But, as I said, we are looking into that.”
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international agency that investigates chemical weapons attacks, “is collecting information” on the allegation.
“So far, the OPCW has not yet determined the credibility of these allegations,” the OPCW public affairs office told the Washington Examiner in an unsigned note Monday. ”The OPCW continues to monitor the situation. The OPCW has not launched an investigation, and it has no indication so far of the use of any specific toxic chemical as a weapon. Note that the term ‘investigation’ has a specific meaning for OPCW activities relating to mandates, deployments, etc.”
