Blood Samples Prove Assad Used Sarin In Syria

Assad has claimed that Syria has no chemical weapons and that reports that his forces used sarin gas in Khan Sheikhoun were "100% fabricated", the BBC reported.

French intelligence services have scientific proof that the Syrian regime was responsible for a suspected chemical attack that killed 88 people, France's foreign minister said yesterday.

The new sanctions are a response to the deadly April 4 chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, an attack the USA government accuses Assad of carrying out against civilians.

These government employees are "highly educated" chemical specialists who are likely to be able to travel outside of Syria and use the worldwide financial system, Trump Administration officials said.

French intelligence agents are aware that a Syrian Sukhoi 22 warplane struck Khan Sheikhoun six times on the day of the attack, Mr Ayrault said.

Among the elements found in the samples were hexamine, a hallmark of sarin produced by the Syrian regime, according to the report.

April 25: The United States has declared to pursue anyone connected to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and also threatened to shut down their financial networks.

The OPCW said on April 19 sarin or a similar banned toxin was used in the attack, but it is not mandated to assign responsibility.

The announcement marks the strongest evidence yet that Assad's government was responsible for the daybreak attack on the northwestern Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun earlier this month which killed at least 86 people, many of them as they slept.

Although the Syrian government promotes the SSRC as a civilian research center, "its activities focus substantively on the development of biological and chemical weapons", USA officials said.

"We will continue our efforts to hold accountable those responsible for chemical attacks, including through the United Nations and European Union, and to energize global support for the UN-led political process", he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The only way to establish the truth about what happened... is an impartial global investigation".

Assad has strongly denied he was behind the attack, in which sarin gas was allegedly used.

Since then, the government has repeatedly been found to use bombs laden with chlorine, and worldwide inspectors have discovered traces of sarin and other chemical weapons in some locations.

The circumstances of the Ghouta attack are still disputed and the United Nations declared past year that all Syria's chemical weapons had been destroyed.

The attack has been widely blamed on Syrian government forces - and prompted US President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on one of the country's airbases in retaliation.