Gov’t accused of using chlorine gas
A human rights group accused the Syrian government on Monday of conducting at least eight chemical attacks using chlorine gas on opposition-controlled residential areas during the final months in the battle for Aleppo.
Human Rights Watch said in a report released Monday that it used witness interviews and video footage to document government helicopters carrying out the attacks in rebel-held eastern Aleppo that killed at least nine civilians, including four children, and injured around 200 people.
The attacks took place in areas where government forces were planning to advance, following the front lines as they moved from east to west, the rights group said.
Ole Solvang, the organization’s deputy emergencies director, said: “The pattern of the chlorine attacks shows that they were co-ordinated with the overall military strategy for retaking Aleppo, not the work of a few rogue elements.”
The Syrian government has previously denied any chemical attacks.
Human Rights Watch said the attacks were carried out between Nov. 17 and Dec. 13 — two days before President Bashar Assad’s forces took control of eastern Aleppo.
In five of the chemical attacks, the rights group said it reviewed photographs or video footage of remnants of chemical-filled improvised munitions posted online or shared with Human Rights Watch.
Human Rights Watch said opposition-affiliated groups, first responders, activists and journalists reported that government forces also carried out chemical attacks in other locations in Syria during the same period.
Inspectors charged with determining who is responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria have determined that the Syrian government was behind at least three attacks involving chlorine gas in 2014 and 2015 and the Islamic State extremist group was responsible for at least one involving mustard gas in 2015.
The U.S., Britain and France have been pressing the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on the Syrian government for using chemical weapons. But Russia, Syria’s closest ally, has repeatedly questioned investigators’ conclusions linking chemical weapons use to the Assad regime.