U.S. accuses Russia of helping Syria cover up chemical weapons use

FILE PHOTO: People walk in a street during a media tour in Douma near Damascus, Syria April 23, 2018. [Reuters]

The United States on Thursday accused Russia of helping Syria conceal the use of banned toxic munitions in the civil war by undermining the work of the global chemical weapons agency trying to identify those responsible.

The comments by the U.S. representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Kenneth Ward, drew a rapid denial from Moscow and came as Western powers and Russia clashed at the agency’s annual conference in The Hague.