Putin seeks UN probe on Syria

MOSCOW: Russia will request the United Nations to conduct an investigation into last week’s chemical weapons incident in Syria, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday. Putin described the incident as a rebel provocation and said Russia has intelligence that such acts have been planned in other parts of Syria, including the capital Damascus, according to comments carried by state media. US forces last week conducted a missile strike on a Syrian military base that Washington alleged was responsible for a recent chemical weapons attack in which dozens of civilians were killed. Putin said the US missile strike was reminiscent of the 2003 attack on Iraq, which led to the rise of the terrorist group IS. Turkey said the nerve gas sarin was used in Syria’s Idlib province in the attack last week. Tests of blood and urine samples of victims of the attack revealed traces of sopropyl methyl phosphonic acid, the metabolite of sarin, Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag said in comments carried by Turkish state media. More than two dozen victims of the attack were brought to Turkey for treatment.— DPA