An international chemical warfare watchdog told the UN Security Council that it suspects regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his countryman at least 17 times since the beginning of the Syria civil war, the Associate Press reports.
Fernando Arias, of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told Security Council member that it found traces of chemical weapons in containers in September 2020. In 2013 and 2014, Western nations oversaw the destruction of more than 600 tons of chemical weapons. However, Assad used easily-manufactured and available chlorine gas in two attacks on Syrian villages in 2014 and 2015.
In 2017, Assad used the more potent sarin gas in a least three attacks on Syrian villages, killing scores of people in each. While Donald Trump claimed credit for stopping Syrian chemical weapons use in June 2017, the use of chlorine gas carried on through May 2019.