UN: Assad regime has committed war crime of chemical weapon use

Assad militias fired banned chemical weapons at Syrian opposition enclaves at least three times this year, bringing the total number of such incidents to more than 30 confirmed by United Nations investigators since the start of the seven-year conflict, according to a new report issued on Wednesday (Sep. 12), Independent reported.

In one incident, Assad helicopters fired two barrel bombs on a district of Saraqeb in February, a town in the opposition-controlled province of Idlib, which is now in the midst of a fresh Assad offensive. The munitions gave off a strange smell, said the report of the independent commission convened by the UN’s Human Rights Council to probe human rights violations and deprivations suffered in the Syrian war.

“Victims described symptoms consistent with the use of chlorine, including shortness of breath, a burning throat, coughing, dilated pupils and chest pain, and also recalled a smell similar to household detergents,” said the report.

The findings in the 24-page report cover January to July of 2018. The conclusions are based on 402 interviews, as well as satellite imagery, photographs, videos, and medical records, along with consultations with aid organisations and government officials. 

 “The Commission of Inquiry demands that all parties to the conflict and those states who support them do everything in their power to prevent a massacre in Idlib,” the war crimes investigators said in a statement read out by panel chairman Paulo Pinheiro to a news conference.

The report comes at a diplomatically sensitive time. The US, France, and other countries have warned Syria and its backers not to use chemical weapons in the Idlib offensive.

But the UN report says at least two of incidents it documented in Syria “follow a pattern previously documented by the commission concerning the use of chemical weapons by Assad militias and consistently observed since April 2014.” 

On 22 January and 1 February chlorine loaded onto rockets struck the eastern Ghouta district on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. UN investigators said the missiles used in those attacks “have been used only by Assad militias” or allied militias. 

“Specifically, the munitions documented were built around industrially produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to militias commanded by the Assad regime,” said the report.

The findings of chemical weapons use come as Assad militias, allied Iranian-backed militias, and the Russian advisers prepare an all-out offensive against Syria’s last major opposition enclave in the Idlib province.