Assad Still Uses Chemical Weapons on His Rebels; Report Confirms Helicopters Drop Chlorine Bombs

A toxic chemical -- almost certainly chlorine -- was used "systematically and repeatedly" as a weapon in attacks on villages in northern Syria this year, the global chemical weapons watchdog said today (September 10, 2014), according to the Newsmax World website.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that a report by a fact-finding mission it sent to Syria based its conclusions on dozens of interviews with victims, physicians, eye-witnesses, and others.

Witnesses generally linked the chlorine attacks to helicopter-borne barrel bombs, but said the helicopters were flying too high for them to see any identifying markings on the aircraft.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the report's findings "corroborate allegations that the Assad regime is continuing to use chemical weapons in Syria, in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention."