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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. SalamPix/ABACA

Human rights groups call for sanctions as UN says Assad forces in Syria were behind sarin gas attack

Over 80 people were killed in the chemical attack in April.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH has urged the international community to slap sanctions on the Syrian government after UN investigators blamed President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for a sarin gas attack that killed dozens.

“The (UN) Security Council should move swiftly to ensure accountability by imposing sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for chemical attacks in Syria,” the New York-based rights watchdog said in a statement.

The 4 April attack in which sarin gas projectiles were fired into Khan Sheikhun, a rebel-held town in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, killed 83 people, according to the United Nations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a death toll of 87, including more than 30 children.

A UN panel of investigators said in a report it was “confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhun”, an attack which prompted a retaliatory US strike on a Syrian air base.

Ole Solvang, deputy emergencies director at HRW, said the panel’s report “should end the deception and false theories that have been spread by the Syrian government”.

“Syria’s repeated use of chemical weapons poses a serious threat to the international ban against the use of chemical weapons,” Solvang said.

“All countries have an interest in sending a strong signal that these atrocities will not be tolerated.”

UN experts have also accused the Syrian regime, in a war with rebel forces for the past six years that has cost more than 330,000 lives, of launching chlorine gas attacks in the north of the country in 2014 and 2015.

© AFP 2017

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    Mute Colette Kearns
    Favourite Colette Kearns
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    May 30th 2016, 11:27 AM

    Learning CPR should be compulsory in all school’s!

    277
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    Mute Cal McLaughlin
    Favourite Cal McLaughlin
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    May 30th 2016, 10:40 AM

    Well done those men on the golf course.
    And the brave men in the fire service.

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    Mute Allison Smith
    Favourite Allison Smith
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    May 30th 2016, 11:36 AM

    Utmost respect to the emergency services here. My aunts flat in Nigeria caught fire yesterday, fire service took 90 minutes to arrive. She lost everything

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
    Favourite Tweety McTweeter
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    May 30th 2016, 1:54 PM

    Jesus, if they are not going to come for 90 minutes, they might as well not come at all

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    Mute Allison Smith
    Favourite Allison Smith
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    May 30th 2016, 2:16 PM

    My aunt said if it wasn’t for the help of neighbours and a nearby hotel they had put the fire out before the fire brigade arrived.

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    Mute Cal McLaughlin
    Favourite Cal McLaughlin
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    May 30th 2016, 2:25 PM

    90 minutes to Nigeria?
    They did very well.
    Took me 10 hours to get to Lagos a few years ago.

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    Mute Richard Griffin
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    May 30th 2016, 1:39 PM

    The car on the blessington roads was there for a day before it was set on fire….where was the council to take it away??

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    Mute Dan O Neill
    Favourite Dan O Neill
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    May 30th 2016, 12:27 PM

    Who pays the water charges that the firemen use thats what I would like to know.

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    Mute f m
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    May 30th 2016, 12:50 PM

    There’s a fee per engine i believe. Something like €600 I think ?
    I guess your house or car insurance would pay for it.

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    Mute Mark Tobin
    Favourite Mark Tobin
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    May 30th 2016, 7:34 PM

    Superb work from all involved during this tragedy. I’m a huge supporter of DFB but there is no mention that they took 25mins to respond despite being 7 minutes from the swords station.

    Also, shame on Roganstown Hotel and Golf Club for not having a defibrillator on site. Crazy considering there is a golf course, gym and pool. Thank goodness the people on the course reacted quickly.

    14
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