Video report by ITV News Correspondent Dan Rivers

Additional reporting by ITV News Editor Jonathan Wald

A senior Syrian government minister has accused the UK of being involved in faking a chemical attack on civilians in order to justify air strikes against the regime. The suspected chlorine assault is believed to have killed around 75 civilians including children and led to US, UK and French airstrikes targeting major areas linked to Syria's chemical weapons programme. Among them were those clad in medical outfit but they were not our employees, and I do not think that they were medics at all. This week, the director of the largest medical relief agency working on Syria, the Union of Medical care and Relief Organizations (UOSSM) said that doctors who treated patients in Douma were intimidated and threatened by agents of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, including threats of violence to their families if they tell international inspectors what they have seen. The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed the incident was staged by Britain and a Russian general in Syria says no evidence of chemical weapons has been found in Douma. Inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) attempted to enter Douma to examine the chemical attack sites this week but were kept away by security concerns, including gunfire and an angry mob appearing at one site. On Thursday evening, British Prime Minister Theresa May accused the Russians of running a “disinformation campaign” to cover up the chemical weapons abuses in Douma and Salisbury.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad accuses the United Kingdom of faking evidence of a chemical weapons attack in Douma.