CHEM HORROR
300 attacks in Syria in 8 years, says report
The Syrian government and affiliated forces have launched more than 300 attacks using chemical weapons during the country’s nearly eight-year conflict, a report said Sunday.
The findings by the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute offer the most comprehensive record to date of presumed chemical weapons use in Syria, where the long war appears to be winding down.
The tally by the policy group also could be cited as part of any possible international war crimes cases against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Global Public Policy Institute said it had “credibly substantiated” 336 uses of chemical weapons, ranging from nerve agents to crude but dangerous chlorine bombs.
Almost all the attacks, 98%, were attributed to Assad’s military or allied forces, including loyalist militias that also have the backing of Russia. The rest of the attacks were attributed to the Islamic State.
The institute’s analysis begins Dec. 23, 2012. But the vast majority of the attacks it cites took place after thenPresident Barack Obama’s 2013 declaration that use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians would be his administration’s red line.
The researchers said they based their findings on witness statements and postattack analysis, including reports of the effects from the apparent chemical agents and how the weapons were delivered on the attack sites.
“The Assad regime did not merely ‘get away’ with its use of these banned weapons,” said the report. “It succeeded in using them for strategic ends.”
With Syria’s rebels on the verge of defeat and their former Gulf Arab backers reopening embassies in Damascus, Assad appears to be moving out of diplomatic isolation.
The United States remains a staunch opponent of Assad, although Washington holds little leverage over Syria.
In the aftermath of a 2013 nerve agent attack on a Damascus suburb, Obama pulled U.S. warplanes back from the brink after a lastminute deal that was meant to see Assad relinquish his chemical stockpiles.
More than 72 tons were destroyed, but the attacks did not stop. The report said many of the subsequent attacks used chlorine, which turns into hydrochloric acid when inhaled.
President Trump has twice ordered military action against Syrian government targets in the wake of highprofile chemical attacks.
There has been no recorded use of chlorine weapons in Syria since the last U.S. missile strike last April 14.
“The more we looked at the patterns associated with their use, the more we came to understand chemical weapons not as some special, separate evil, but as a key capability of the Syrian military as part of its broader campaign of indiscriminate violence,” said Tobias Schneider, who led the Global Public Policy Institute research team.
Medical workers and first responders in oppositionheld areas say they have treated more than 5,000 people for suspected chemical exposure since 2012. At least 188 people have died after chlorine attacks, according to estimates.
According to the data, Syria’s army has consistently prioritized striking population centers over front lines, even in the face of defeat on