The panel set up by the Security Council was investigating nine cases and drew the damning conclusions about three attacks — in Talmenes, Sarmin and Marea in Aleppo
As the 5-year civil war racks up casualties, Syrians on Wednesday rescued a wounded child in Aleppo.
United Nations: A UN investigation has established that President Bashar al-Assad’s forces carried out at least two chemical attacks in Syria and that Islamic State jihadists used mustard gas.
Ongoing Strife: As the 5-year civil war racks up casualties, Syrians on Wednesday rescued a wounded child in Aleppo. Pic/AFP
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The Joint Investigative Mechanism panel was able to identify the perpetrators of three chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015, but was unable to draw conclusions in the other six cases that it has been investigating over the past year.
The report found that the Syrian regime dropped chemical weapons on two villages in northwestern Idlib province: Talmenes on April 21, 2014 and Sarmin on March 16, 2015. In both instances, Syrian air force helicopters dropped “a device” on houses that was followed by the “release of a toxic substance”, which in the case of Sarmin matched “the characteristics of chlorine”.
The panel also found that the Islamic State “was the only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulphur mustard” in an attack on the town of Marea in northern Aleppo province on August 21, 2015.
The Assad regime has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons in Syria, but the report said that in the three cases, it had “sufficient information to reach a conclusion on the actors involved”.
The JIM was set up by the Security Council to investigate the use of chemical weapons and for the first time determine who is responsible for the attacks. The report “states clearly that the Syrian regime and Daesh have perpetrated chemical attacks in Syria”, said French Deputy Ambassador Alexis Lamek. “When it comes to proliferation, the use of chemical weapons, of such weapons of mass destruction, we cannot afford to be weak. The council will have to act,” he said.
Based on the findings, the Security Council could impo-se sanctions on Syria or ask the International Criminal Court to take it up as a war crime. But many diplomats say Russia would be unlikely to back such a move.
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