UN says Syrian forces adapted Iran-produced rockets to kill civilians in gas attack

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s forces dropped chlorine on a Damascus suburb and Idlib, where the government is preparing a major offensive, UN investigators said yesterday.

The incidents bring to 39 the number of chemical attacks the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has documented since 2013, including 33 blamed on the Assad regime.

Those responsible for the remaining six attacks have not been identified.

Yesterday, Syrian government troops shelled Idlib despite warnings from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that a full-scale campaign would start a bloodbath.

The UN commission said internal displacement in 2018 was the worst in the seven-year conflict, as the Russia and Iranbacked Assad government stepped up its fight to reclaim territory lost to Syrian rebels.

Defeats for the anti-Assad rebels led to many being moved to Idlib, where government troops are gathering.

The north-western province and adjacent areas form the largest piece of territory still held by the rebels.

About three million people are there.

The use of chlorine in Idlib this year is not the first time Syrian forces are suspected of such an attack. In April last year, an air strike released a toxic gas that killed at least 74 people, the UN and some western and Middle East governments claim.

Using chlorine in warfare is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified by Syria, and under international law.

“To recapture Eastern Ghouta in April, government forces launched indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, which included the use of chemical weapons,” UN investigators said.

They were referring to incidents on January 22 and February 1 in a residential area of Douma and Eastern Ghouta, suburbs of the capital.

Women and children were injured in the attacks.

“The commission concludes that on these two occasions, government forces and/or affiliated militias committed the war crimes of using prohibited weapons and launching indiscriminate attacks in civilian-populated areas in Eastern Ghouta,” the UN said.

“The munitions documented were built around industrially produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to forces commanded by the Syrian government,” the report said.

Chlorine was also used in Idlib on February 4.

“Government helicopters dropped at least two barrels carrying chlorine payloads in the Taleel area of Saraqeb,” it said. At least 11 men were hurt.

The report, based on 400 interviews, also examined aerial and ground attacks which were part of Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch. This involved Turkish forces and Syrian rebels taking the north-west Afrin region from Syrian Kurdish forces in the spring.

Afrin’s main hospital, a market and homes were hit, it said.

In the first six months of the year, more than one million people were displaced by six battles across the country, the report added.