Home
/
Isiam
/
Islamic World
/
Syrian regime forces used nerve gas in four attacks: HRW
Syrian regime forces used nerve gas in four attacks: HRW
Sep 13, 2025 5:51 PM

  Syrian regime forces have used deadly nerve gas in four chemical weapons attacks since December, including one in Khan Sheikhoun that killed nearly 100 people in April, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

  Citing new evidence, the US-based rights group said the attacks are "part of a clear pattern" that could amount to crimes against humanity.

  Bashar al-Assad's forces are also stepping up chlorine gas attacks and have begun using surface-fired rockets filled with chlorine in fighting near Damascus, HRW said in a report published on Monday.

  "The government's use of nerve agents is a deadly escalation," Kenneth Roth, HRW's executive director, said.

  "In the last six months, the regime has used warplanes, helicopters, and ground forces to deliver chlorine and sarin in Damascus, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo," he added.

  "That's widespread and systematic use of chemical weapons."

  Assad has denied using chemical weapons, saying the suspected sarin attack in Khan Sheikhoun was a "fabrication" to justify a US missile strike.

  HRW urged the United Nations Security Council to adopt sanctions against anyone UN investigators find to be responsible for these attacks.

  Al Jazeera's UN correspondent, Rosiland Jordan, said diplomats had called the report "a real confirmation of what they know to be happening inside Syria".

  Russia, Assad's top ally, declined to comment, said Jordan, reporting from New York.

  In April, Russia blocked a UN resolution demanding a speedy investigation into the Khan Sheikhoun attack.

  HRW said it interviewed 60 witnesses and collected photos and videos providing information on the four suspected chemical attacks for its report, entitled "Death by Chemicals".

  All four attacks took place in areas where offensives by rebel forces fighting the government threatened military airbases, the report said.

  In some of the attacks, the aim appears to have been to inflict "severe suffering" on the civilian population.

  In Khan Sheikhoun, residents said the first bomb believed to be carrying the deadly agent sarin was dropped near the town's central bakery. It was followed by three or four high-explosive bombs a few minutes later.

  Dozens of photos and videos provided by residents of a crater from the first bomb showed a green-colored metal fragment that HRW said was probably the Soviet-produced KhAB-250 bomb.

  The report cast doubt over Syrian and Russian claims that toxic agents were released in Khan Sheikhoun after a bomb struck a chemical weapons depot on the ground.

  "It would not be plausible that conventional bombs struck chemical caches repeatedly across the country," it said.

  At least 92 people, including 30 children, died in the Khan Sheikhoun attack, HRW said, citing local residents and activists. Hundreds more were wounded.

  On December 11 and 12, some 64 people died from exposure to nerve agents after fighter jets attacked in eastern Hama.

  A third suspected nerve agent attack in northern Hama on March 30 caused no deaths but wounded dozens of civilians and combatants, according to residents and medical personnel, the report said.

  The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is investigating allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria along with the joint UN-OPCW panel (JIM) which is tasked with assigning responsibility for the attacks.

  PHOTO CAPTION

  People, affected by what activists say is nerve gas, are treated at a hospital in the Duma neighborhood of Damascus August 21, 2013. REUTERS

  Source: Aljazeera.com

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Islamic World
Israel 'cutting Palestinian water'
  Israel is denying Palestinians adequate access to clean, safe water while allowing almost unlimited supplies to Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, human rights group Amnesty International has said.   "Swimming pools, well-watered lawns and large irrigated farms in Israeli settlements... stand in stark contrast next to Palestinian villages whose...
'Israel stripped body organs off Palestinians'
  An Israeli Knesset member says there is evidence showing that deceased Palestinians were stripped bare of their vital organs while in police custody in Tel Aviv.   Israeli politician and leader of the Arab nationalist party, Ahmad Tibi, said on Saturday that a medical institution in Israel harvested appendages from the...
Israel strips 4577 Palestinians of right to live in Jerusalem
  Israel stripped 4,577 Palestinians of right to live in Jerusalem in 2008, blocking residency status, at a faster rate than at any time in the history of the Jewish state, an Israeli rights group said on Wednesday, citing official Israeli statistics.   "Revocation of residence has reached frightening proportions," said Dalia...
'False pretext' used in Afghan war
  The leader of an Afghan political group wanted by the US has said that Washington used a false pretext to launch its war on Afghanistan, on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the conflict.   Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who leads a faction of the Hizb-e Islami group, said that the war...
14 Palestinian homes demolished in Jerusalem in November
  The Land Research Center (LRC) of the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem reported that the Israeli authorities conducted 187 violations against Jerusalem in November, and demolished 14 Palestinians homes in addition to issuing orders to demolish 170 homes.   The center prepares and publishes its reports in cooperation with the Civil...
Afghan Taliban: Our enemy is occupation, not the West
  The Afghan Taliban pose no threat to the West but will continue their fight against occupying foreign forces, they said on Wednesday, the eighth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that removed them from power.   U.S.-led forces with the help of Afghan groups overthrew the Taliban government during a five week...
Settlers 'stone' school children
  Twaneh School in Hebron has seen some improvements since former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair paid it a visit as UN Middle East envoy last year.   The track leading from the school to the new main road joining Jerusalem to Israeli settlements on the south eastern slopes of Palestine is...
'Israel apparently buried spy devices in Lebanon'
  A U.N. investigation into explosions in south Lebanon indicated on Sunday that Israel had planted spy devices on Lebanese land in what a senior U.N. official said would be a violation of a ceasefire agreement.   The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said its preliminary probe into two explosions in the...
Iraqi cancer figures soar
  Doctors in Iraq are recording a sharp rise in the number of cancer victims south of Baghdad. Sufferers in the province of Babil have risen almost tenfold in just three years.   Locals blame depleted uranium from US military equipment used in the 2003 invasion. Some 500 cases of cancer were...
Besieged Gazans seek escape through painkillers
  Abu Abdullah got hooked on painkillers after his house was destroyed and his 12-year-old daughter was killed by Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.   "I'm not an addict," said the 39-year-old father of five, who now lives in a cramped rented apartment in Gaza...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved