United Nations extends Syria gas attacks probe

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously decided to extend for another year the mandate of a panel tasked with investigating chemical attacks in Syria and identifying those responsible.

Backed by Russia, the council adopted a US-drafted resolution to prolong the joint investigation by the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) until November 2017, AFP reported.

US Ambassador Samantha Power said the work of the panel, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), was "far from finished" and pointed to reports of alleged chlorine gas attacks in east Aleppo.

The JIM has already established during its year-long investigation that Syrian government forces carried out three chlorine gas attacks on villages in 2014 and 2015.

Despite the findings, Russia has dismissed the conclusions as unconvincing and said no sanctions should be imposed on Syria.

The JIM also found that the Islamic State group in Syria used mustard gas as a weapon in August 2015.