Gas attack shines harsh light on Assad’s barbarity

Once again, Assad gassed his own people. At least 74 civilians died, including a dozen children, in one of the worst chemical weapons attack in an opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Syria. The mind-numbing images of people gasping for breath and convulsing in the streets show that Assad regime atrocities against Syrians have crossed all limits. The videos that emerged from Khan Sheikhoun showing the limp bodies of children and adults piled in heaps were reminiscent of a 2013 chemical assault that left hundreds dead. Chemical weapons have killed hundreds of people since the start of Syria’s civil war, with the UN blaming three attacks on the Syrian government and a fourth on the IS group.
The despicable attack drew condemnations from world leaders and set off a blame game too. The Trump administration held Assad’s forces responsible for the deplorable act. A US review of radar and other assessments showed Syrian aircraft flying in the area at the time of the attack. Trump blasted the policy of former President Barack Obama for the country’s worst chemical weapons attack in years. He said Obama ‘did nothing’ despite Assad crossing the former US leader’s ‘red line’ in 2013. In August 2013, hundreds of people suffocated to death in rebel-held suburbs of the Syrian capital. A UN report said that Syria’s ground-to-ground missiles loaded with sarin were fired on civilian areas while residents slept. But Assad government has consistently denied using chemical weapons and chlorine gas, accusing the rebels of deploying it in the war instead. More than 1,500 civilians were
killed in chemical weapons attacks in Syria between the onset of the civil war and 2015.
On the other hand, Russia puts blame on anti-Assad rebels. Russia’s military says the chemicals were dispersed when Syrian warplanes bombed a facility where rebels were building chemical weapons.
In the wake of Tuesday’s attack, United Nations Security Council convened an emergency meeting and debated a resolution, which was drafted by France, the UK and the US, calling on Syria to provide UN investigators information about air operations and access to Syrian air bases. But Russia said the resolution was “categorically unacceptable.”
Syrian war, which is in its sixth year, has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced half of the country’s population. It has created the worst humanitarian crisis since the end of second world war with more than 4.5 million refugees. Bombings have reduced cities into rubbles. And human rights violations are worst.
Despite having committed the worst atrocities against its own people, Assad is comfortably ensconced in the high seat of power thanks to Damascus allies, veto-wielding Russia and Iran. In the backdrop of brutal massacre of civilians, Russia must rethink its continued support for the regime. Moscow and Iran bear ‘great moral responsibility’ for the deaths.
The gas attack once again shines harsh light on Assad’s barbarity. He has lost the legitimacy to be at the helm of war-ravaged country and he will never be able to unify Syria after this war.