Orient News, April 5, 2018 – A year after Assad regime attacked the opposition-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun with sarin, the United States and its European allies vowed that Bashar al-Assad will be held to account.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany and the US on Wednesday condemned the “use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere,” and sternly criticized Russia for failing to strip its ally of his deadly chemical arsenal.
The statement was released on the anniversary of a deadly chemical attack on Syrian people in Khan Sheikoun by Syrian regime forces.
 “Today marks one year since the heinous attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, where Assad’s forces unleashed sarin nerve gas with tragic consequences for hundreds of men, women and children,” the statement said.
At around 7:00am on April 5, 2017, a regime airstrike hit Khan Sheikoun, a small town in northwestern Syria held by opposition fighters against Assad’s Russian-backed regime.
After the attack, a UN-OPCW report concluded that the “leadership panel is confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhoun.”
According to a UN-commissioned report, many residents of the town suffered the symptoms of an illegal nerve agent attack and more than 80 of them died.
Assad regime carried out 214 chemical attacks against the opposition-held areas since 2011, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, claiming the lives of at least 1,421 people.