Even though five years have passed since Bashar Assad regime forces launched a chemical weapon attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, northwestern Syria, civilians still cannot shake the painful memories of the massacre.
The Assad regime launched a chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun in the southeast of Idlib on April 4, 2017, killing more than 100 civilians.
After the massacre, the regime and its supporters launched intense attacks and captured Khan Sheikhoun, forcing residents of the district to continue their lives in camps on the Syrian-Turkish border in the north of Idlib.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) about the chemical massacre, Muhlisa Shuayib said she lost her son to the Assad regime attack.
The regime's chemical attack was carried out 300 meters (984 feet) away from their home, Shuayib said, adding that in addition to her own child, many children and women died in the attack.
Noting that the attack took place at around 5:45 a.m., Shuayib said, "After the attack, we went out. My son and I fainted due to the gas. They took us to the hospital, I recovered, but my 13-year-old son died."
Addressing the perpetrators of the chemical attack, the mother said, "You burned my heart and many mothers' hearts. May God deprive you of your eyes," adding that there is nothing more difficult than receiving the news of your child's death.
"A lot of mothers like me and myself are heartbroken. Children, mothers who died, were buried in the grave due to the chemical attack in the south of the district. After the chemical attack, I get sick all the time. My eyes are blurry. Doctors say there is no cure for the disease. How can I be protected from chemical attack and be treated? I do not know."
The town of Khan Sheikhoun in the south of Idlib was under the control of opposition and anti-regime armed groups since 2014. The district came to the fore on April 4, 2017, after the Assad regime killed 100 people in a massacre using chemical weapons. In restrained response, the United States on April 7 hit the Shayrat military air base, which belongs to the regime.
Turkey, Russia and Iran announced the Idlib de-escalation zone at the Astana meeting on May 4-5, 2017. However, despite all efforts, Khan Sheikhoun was targeted with intense attacks by the Assad regime and its supporters.
An investigative team was established after Russia blocked the extension of a collective investigation mechanism set up by the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2015. The body had accused Syria of chemical weapons attacks, including unleashing sarin in an aerial attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017.
The OPCW-U.N. Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) confirmed on Oct. 27, 2017, that the attack was orchestrated by the regime. The investigation did reveal that a war crime had been committed in the eyes of international law, however, those responsible for the massacre could not be tried in the International Criminal Court (ICC) due to Russia's obstruction. Assad regime forces captured the district in August 2019, with Russian help, at the cost of leaving no civilians.
The vote, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, marked the first time a member state of the OPCW has been hit with such a sanction.
A group of 46 nations called for the step at the organization's annual meeting of member states. Behind the scenes diplomatic efforts to reach a consensus on the proposal failed, leading to a vote in which 87 nations voted in favor of suspending the regime's rights and 15 voted against. There were 34 abstentions.
The Syrian regime, which joined the organization in 2013 after being threatened with airstrikes in response to a chemical attack on the outskirts of the country’s capital, denounced the move as a "propaganda tool" and denied using chemical weapons.
The investigation mechanism set up by the OPCW has twice blamed Syrian regime forces for chemical attacks. Last year, it said it found "reasonable grounds to believe" that a Syrian air force military helicopter dropped a chlorine cylinder on a Syrian town in 2018, sickening 12 people.
In 2020, the team found reasonable grounds to believe that the regime's air force was responsible for attacks using chlorine and the nerve agent sarin in March 2017 in the town of Latamneh.