It has been 10 years since the chemical attacks in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
In 2013, amidst Syria’s war, the Syrian regime attacked the towns of Zamalka, Ein Tarma, and Irbin in Ghouta countryside with a nerve agent.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a total of 1,127 people were killed in the attacks. Nearly 6,000 others suffered from suffocation and respiratory problems.
The SNHR said gassing people in their sleep demonstrates that the attacks were “premeditated and deliberate.”
A memorial last Sunday in Idlib was attended by activists, witnesses, and civil defense volunteers, who had gathered as part of the “Don’t Suffocate the Truth” campaign. They carried slogans and demanded accountability for the perpetrators of the chemical attack.
The SNHR has documented a total of 222 chemical weapon attacks in Syria since the first recorded use of chemical weapons on December 23rd, 2012, up until August 20th, 2023.
Referring to the 2013 Ghouta attacks as “the largest chemical weapon attack in the modern age,” SNHR said the al-Assad regime is still protected by impunity and called on the United Nations to impose economic, political, and military sanctions on the Syrian government.
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