German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday commemorated the anniversaries of the chemical attacks the Assad regime launched in the towns of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, and on Douma on April 7, 2018.
“This week marks the anniversary of the heinous chemical attacks on the Syrian cities of Khan Shaykhun and Duma, which join a long list of confirmed uses in Syria of these internationally prohibited weapons,” Maas said in a statement on Thursday.
He said that the Assad regime “has committed war crimes time and again, including with the use of chemical weapons against civilians, brought terrible suffering upon the population and exacerbated the already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”
“Those responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable for their crimes. Together with many partners, we have managed to ensure that the independent experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons can now identify the perpetrators of these attacks,” he stressed.
“Germany continues to campaign resolutely for an end to all uses of chemical weapons and for the Syrian regime to comply at long last with its obligations under international law in accordance with the Chemical Weapons Convention, to fully disclose its stockpiles of chemical weapons and to destroy them under international supervision.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights on Thursday published a report on the use of chemical weapons in Syria to mark the 2nd anniversary of the Assad regime’s chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun.
The Network said that it recorded no fewer than 221 chemical weapons attacks in Syria claiming the lives of at least 1,461 people, including many women and children.
According to the report, the Assad regime has carried out no fewer than 216 chemical weapons attacks since December 2012. It indicated that the ISIS extremist group carried out five other attacks, all in the province of Aleppo in the reporting period. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
