Syrian authorities and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors have recovered more than 70 rockets and aerial bombs, raw sarin precursor materials, and chemical mixing and storage equipment from three previously undeclared sites in Syria’s northern coastal and central regions, the OPCW confirmed in its May 2026 progress report.
An OPCW expert team has discovered a significant amount of undeclared chemical weapons and related materials and documentation in the course of its ongoing deployment in the Syrian Arab Republic.
OPCW Director-General Arias commends Syria’s continued commitment to the Chemical… pic.twitter.com/URZOH1gI1r
— OPCW (@OPCW) May 27, 2026
The OPCW noted that the discovery confirms long-standing assessments that the former Syrian regime systematically withheld information and misled the international community about the true scale of its clandestine chemical weapons program.
Syria’s transitional government has also detained 18 suspects linked to the former regime’s chemical weapons program.
Mohamad Katoub, Syria’s permanent representative to the OPCW in The Hague, told Reuters that the detainees include senior military, political, and technical officials, several of whom held the rank of major general under Assad.
At least four appear on European, UK, or U.S. sanctions lists. The investigation is ongoing and no names have been made public.
“Despite the secrecy, the danger, and the immense security challenges… today we delivered for the Syrian people and for the world,” Katoub said. “It is the first time such munitions could be recovered before they were used in crimes against the Syrian people.”
The recovered materials included hexamine, a chemical stabilization agent the OPCW has previously documented as a component in sarin production by Assad’s forces. Its presence at undeclared sites indicates the concealed program encompassed not only stockpiled munitions but active production infrastructure, a dimension Syria’s original 2013 declaration did not account for.
🇸🇾 Syria just found what Assad was hiding.
The transitional government, working with OPCW inspectors, has located remnants of Assad’s secret chemical weapons program. More than 70 rockets and aerial bombs, plus raw ingredients for producing Sarin, the same nerve agent used in… pic.twitter.com/Vxkdryo0lI
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 26, 2026
When Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention that year, it declared a 1,300-ton stockpile across 26 locations. The OPCW has maintained that up to 100 sites require inspection.
Prior OPCW and UN investigations confirmed that sarin, chlorine, and sulfur mustard were used repeatedly by regime forces during the civil war, including the August 21, 2013 attack on the Ghouta suburb of Damascus that killed more than 1,300 people.
Syria’s Interior Ministry on May 8, 2026 arrested a former brigadier general accused of direct involvement in that attack, charging him with overseeing repressive operations and coordinating the logistics of the Ghouta bombing.
Syria’s interim government, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, launched a U.S.-backed remediation plan in March 2026 and subsequently established the “Breath of Freedom Task Force,” a Syrian-led coordination body with member governments including Canada, France, Germany, Qatar, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias addressed representatives from 66 states at the Task Force briefing on April 8. The OPCW’s May report states that inspections at high-priority sites are ongoing.
