Syrian Arab Air Force pilots flying Sukhoi Su-22 military planes and a helicopter dropped bombs containing poisonous chlorine and sarin nerve gas on a village in the country's western Hama region in March 2017, a new team at the global chemical weapons watchdog has concluded in its first report.
The special investigative unit was established by members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2018 to identify perpetrators of illegal attacks. Until now the OPCW had only been authorized to say whether chemical attacks occurred, not who perpetrated them.
Officials in the regime of Bashar al-Assad and its military backer Russia have repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and accuse insurgents of staging attacks to implicate Syrian forces.
The OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), the formation of which was opposed by Moscow and Damascus, said more than 100 people were affected by the attacks, carried out on March 24, 25 and 30 in 2017 in the town of Ltamenah.
Syria's 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Air Force dropped M4000 aerial bombs containing sarin on the town and a cylinder containing chlorine on a hospital, a summary of the report said. The raids were conducted from the Shayrat and Hama air bases, it said.
While individuals were identified by the OPCW investigators, their names have been redacted from the report, which was to be circulated to the OPCW's 193 member states Wednesday.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the perpetrators of the use of sarin as a chemical weapon in Ltamenah on March 24 and 30 March, 2017, and the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon on 25 March, 2017, were individuals belonging to the Syrian Arab Air Force," OPCW team leader Santiago Onate-Laborde said in a statement.
"Attacks of such a strategic nature would only have taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command," he said.
The OPCW's identification team is not a judicial body and it will be up to the OPCW's members, the U.N. Secretary General and the international community to "take any further action they deem appropriate and necessary" OPCW chief Fernando Arias said.
An attack on the Syrian town of Douma led U.S. President Donald Trump to carry out missile strikes on Syrian government targets in April 2018 with the backing of France and Britain.
Created in 1997, the OPCW was initially a technical body to enforce a global non-proliferation treaty, but it has become the focus of diplomatic conflict between Syria and Russia on one side and the United States, France and Britain on the other.
According to Zaman Al-Wasl sources, the military pilot who carried out the deadly Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack in April 2017 and Ltamenah attack was promoted by al-Assad last February to command o the 70th Brigade that affiliated to the military T-4 airbase east of Homs province.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Yousef Hasouri was the chief of staff and deputy commander of Shayrat airfield, also known as the 50th Brigade, in central Homs province from which the deadly chemical weapons attack had been launched.
Hasouri was the commander who took off with his Su-22 (Dubbed: Quds 1) and bombed Khan Sheikhoun with Sarin gas.
Commanders of the Syrian Air Force never had been so carefully selected as the appointments of last years show which include officers famed for their strong loyalty and most descended from pro-close circles of the Assad himself.
On the third anniversary of the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun town in northern Idlib province and the second of chemical attack on Douma city, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said families of the victims are still waiting accountability.
Despite the highly credible investigations, which confirmed the occurrence of the Khan Sheikoun and Douma attacks, the Security Council has failed, so far, to take any active measures, including economic, political or military sanctions, to implement its relevant resolutions, the monitoring group said in legal report.
The Khan Sheikhoun attack that left 103 people dead was one of 217 chemical attacks carried out by regime forces in nine years, SNHR said.
The report provides statistics demonstrating that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons at least 217 times, including 33 attacks before Security Council Resolution 2118 and 184 attacks after it; among the latter 184 attacks, 115 attacks occurred after Resolution 2209, and 59 attacks after Resolution 2235, with all of these attacks resulted in the deaths of at least 1,510 individuals, including 205 children and 260 women.
Donald Trump administration at the time carried out airstrikes mostly targeting against Syrian airfields in a disciplinary act.
According to the CNN, the 59 U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles failed to deter Bashar al-Assad from continuing his campaign of brutality of course.
Last August, the regime forces entered the northwestern town, for the first time in five years, which is strategically located on a highway connecting the capital Damascus to Aleppo.
(Zaman Al Wasl, Reuters)
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