Although it did not assign blame, or an origin of the attack, United Nations inspection team confirmed that sarin gas was the chemical used in the August 21 attack on the outskirts of Damascusit that killed approximately 1400 people.

Although the inspector’s report stated that the attacks originated from an area where the Syrian government has bases located, the report also pointed out that that evidence could have been manipulated by the Syrian rebels to place blame on Assad’s government in an effort to shore up support for their cause.

The West, particularly Great Britain, the United States and France, quickly interpreted the report to place blame on the Assad Regime, citing trajectory inforrmation supplied in the report. While Russia said that it was too early to come to a conclusion, and said that the Syrian claims of rebel involvement cannot be shrugged off.

According to the U.N. Inspection team report, rocket engines found at the scene contained cyrillic writing on them and the trajectory of the rockets were determined to have come from the direction of Syrian government bases. Several rocket engines and rocket fragments were found at the scene, on many, evidence of sarin was evident. The report also pointed out that the meteorological conditions were ideal for a chemical attack on the day they occurred.

The report also pointed out that the sarin used in this incident is far more superior than the sarin used in either Tokyo in 1995, or the gas used in the Iraq-Iran Conflict and was professionally-made.

Russia downplayed the discovery of cyrillic writing on one of the rockets, saying that many countries have copied Soviet weapons. But, it has been long believed that the Soviet Union supplied many of the original chemical weapons in the Syrian government’s stockpile.

When Secretary General Ban ki-Moon presented the report to the United Nations Security Council on Monday, he said the incident was a “war crime” and also stated, “The results are overwhelming and indisputable. The facts speak for themselves.” ki-Moon called the attack “the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century.”

The Note by the Secretary General and the United Nations Inspector report can be read here on the United Nations site. (PDF)