Written by Khalil Ashawi, Tom Perry

IDLIB (Syria/BEIRUT) – Abdel Hamid al-Youssef claimed that 25 family members, including his wife, and their infant twins were killed by poison gas dropped in the town of Syria in 2017. This attack was backed up U.N.-backed investigations concluded was carried out by the Syrian government.

    “In seconds, everything was erased. According to Youssef (33), “Life was destroyed completely.” The attack on Khan Sheikhoun with sarin was one of numerous chemical weapons that were used by the country in its 11-year-old war.

According to Human Rights Watch (New York-based rights organization), the bombardment in Syria’s northwest killed at least 90 people. 30 of these were children.

Russia and China were already vetoing United Nations efforts to have an International Criminal Court (ICC), investigate war crimes and other crimes against humanity committed in Syria at the time the strike occurred.

Human rights activists and survivors of the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack mark its fifth anniversary.

    The United States and other countries have warned Russia could deploy chemical or biological munitions in its invasion of Ukraine, without providing concrete evidence. These statements were dismissed by the Kremlin as “diversion techniques”.

Youssef said that Russia does not have a deterrent. He wants Bashar al Assad, the Syrian president to be brought to justice. “Until now, the criminal has been free.”

Assad’s government denied the use of chemical weapons in this war. It began as an uprising under his authority and has resulted in at least 350,000 deaths. Syria signed 2013 international agreements banning chemical weapons.

Youssef will forever be referring to the Khan Sheikhoun attack. It began with the sounds of warplanes launching several air strikes against the town at 6:30 am.

    Trying to get his family to safety, Youssef headed towards his parents’ home. As he tried to save a neighbor who needed help, his wife stayed on the road.

Youssef claimed that he assisted in loading casualties onto a pickup truck. Some people were frothing at the mouth.

As he attempted to save his niece, Youssef fell unconscious. Hours later, he awoke at the hospital and realized the severity of his situation when he went home.

There were many rooms full of martyrs. Youssef said, “I didn’t know which to choose: my brother or my nephew, our children or my wife.” “They wrapped them in shrouds. “We took them to the cemetery where we buried them.”

    U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration responded by firing 59 cruise missiles at the air strip from which it said the attack was launched.

    Six months later, a report by an investigative mechanism established by the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) – which enforces treaties banning the use of such arms – said the victims’ symptoms were consistent with large-scale poisoning by the nerve agent sarin.

    It said it was “confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017”. In 2019, the government took over control of the town.

Youssef said that he feels the same effects five years later and still faints when he smells household chlorine. He said that the most significant impact has been psychological.

Sarin attack survivors can experience persistent vision issues and gastro intestinal problems. This is according to Professor Alastair Hay who was a specialist in chemical weapons.

    “The main impact is usually catastrophic death, and very quickly,” he said, adding that more data is needed on the long-term consequences of exposure to chemical weapons.

    At the time of the attack, Russia – which threw its military support behind Assad in 2015 – said the chemicals belonged to Syrian rebels, not the government. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia said that he believes Washington intended to launch more missile attacks and that the rebels were planning to use chemical weapons to incite them.

    ‘FALSE FLAG’

    The United States has warned that Russia could attempt similar so-called “false flag” attacks following its invasion of Ukraine in late February.

Washington and allies accuse Putin’s government, in unproven claims that Ukraine has a biological weapons programme as a prelude for potentially launching its biological or chemical attack.

    The White House has not provided evidence Russia has been planning such an attack. The Kremlin also hasn’t provided any support to the assertion that Ukraine is in preparation for chemical weapons.

    Russia says it is mounting “a special military operation” to demilitarize its western neighbor and has denied that its troops have targeted civilians.

    Syria has seen some of the most extensive use of chemical weapons since the First World War.

The OPCW is currently investigating around 150 cases of alleged chemical weapon use in Syria. A source close to the matter stated that there were 20 documented uses.

Investigations conducted by the United Nations and OPCW special Investigation and Identification Team revealed that Syrian government forces used sarin and chlorine barrel bombs to attack civilians between 2015 and 2018. The Islamic State also used chemical weapons against Syria, according to investigators.   

    The deadliest sarin attack of the war to date was in 2013 on rebel-held Ghouta near Damascus that killed hundreds of people but prompted no Western military response. Moscow brokered the deal that Syria’s chemical arms would be destroyed in 2012. This avoided a U.S. strike.

Many diplomats and weapons inspectors later concluded Syria’s promise to give up its stockpile was a ruse https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-chemicalweapons-idUSKCN1AX107.

    Critics said U.S. President Barack Obama failed to enforce his own “red line” against the use of chemical weapons by Assad.

Hamish De Bretton-Gordon, who is a specialist on chemical and biological warfare said that in Syria the Obama red line disappeared in a puff. This gave permission for all dictators, despots, and terrorist groups to use chemical arms.

It also led to Putin believing that the West is weak, and therefore he can do whatever he wants with impunity.”

    A Kremlin spokesman did not immediately reply to emailed questions from Reuters. The Syrian information ministry also did not reply to our questions.

    ‘THESE CRIMES DO NOT FADE’

    Assad’s opponents have drawn parallels between the war in Syria and the military methods used by Russia in Ukraine, including besieging and bombarding cities.  

Following a request from unprecedented 39 members, the ICC stated last month that they were opening an investigation into Ukraine’s war crimes.

    Russia and China’s U.N. veto of an ICC inquiry on Syria has forced rights advocates to pursue other legal avenues.

    Civil society groups have filed complaints over chemical weapons attacks in Syria to judicial authorities in France https://www.reuters.com/article/syria-security-france-int-idUSKBN2AU0VL, Germany https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-syria-germany-chemicalweapons-idUSKBN26R10I and Sweden, where criminal investigations have been opened under laws giving universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity.

According to Open Society Justice Initiative, the cases are still not being prosecuted.

Hamid Ketteny (a civil rescue worker for civil defence) claims that he carried the remains of six children who were killed at Khan Sheikhoun and said he also helped to document the massacre.

“The international community’s silence regarding the crime committed here in Syria allows Russia and others in other parts of the globe, including Ukraine,” he stated.

    Nidal Shikhani, director general of the Chemical Violations Documentation Centre of Syria, said he remained optimistic that perpetrators would be held to account, noting the large amounts of evidence gathered by his group and others.    

    His organisation had received requests for evidence from prosecutors on five cases in three European countries, most recently in September. 

He said, “These crimes don’t fade with time.”