Regime used chem gas in 2015: UN

The Syrian army attacked the village of Qmenas with chemical weapons in March 2015, UN experts said in a report released Friday.

But they were unable to determine who was responsible for two other chemical weapons attacks -- against Binnish in Idlib province in March 2015 and Kafr Zita in Hama province in April 2014.

The report was presented Friday to the UN Security Council.

The UN-led joint investigative mechanism (JIM) in late August reported that Syrian government forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State jihadists had used mustard gas as a weapon.

Of the nine total alleged chemical attacks it is considering in its ongoing probe, the JIM has now attributed three to the Syrian government and one to the Islamic State group.

In its fourth report, investigators concluded that there is now "sufficient information" that the attack on Qmenas "was caused by a Syrian Arab Armed Forces helicopter dropping a device from a high altitude which hit the ground and released the toxic substance that affected the population."

Investigators say the substance may have been chlorine gas, based on the symptoms the victims displayed.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault yesterday asked the UN Security Council to condemn the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and urged that those behind the attacks be placed under sanctions.

Governments in Paris, London and Washington have already called for sanctions against perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria, including against the regime in Damascus. But Russia has foiled all those attempts.

Syria agreed to get rid of its chemical stockpile and to refrain from making any use of toxic substances in warfare when it joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, under pressure from Russia.