The terrible odor of chlorine gas drifts on the wind in the Syrian city of Aleppo. On April 7, four civilians were poisoned by this unpredictable and indiscriminate weapon, reportedly used by Islamist rebels against Kurdish fighters in the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud.
Ever since Bashar al-Assad’s alleged use of chemi- cal weapons in the Ghouta suburb of Damascus killed upwards of 1,700 people in 2013, the terrible, chaotic nature of weaponized gas has be- come representative of the chaos of the conflict itself. When the winds When the winds switch direction, chemical switch direction, chemical weapons kill combatants and civilians alike, and weapons kill combatants and civilians alike.
And in the chlorine-scented fog of war, all sides can—and do—claim that others fired the imprecise weapons. The use of chemical weapons is a war crime that demands investigation, but in the multi-faction Syrian and Iraqi theater of war, reports conflict as to who is using the weapons and from where they being acquired.
More (PDF)
