On the Assad regime that is. You know, the butcher of Damascus, the one who is killing his own people en masse order to save his own skin? Holding entire cities hostage and cut off from supplies for years? The one who gassed his own people in 2013 killing at least hundreds of people.
The Ghouta chemical attack occurred on 21 August 2013 during the Syrian Civil War, when several opposition-controlled or disputed areas of the Ghouta suburbs of the Markaz Rif Dimashq district around Damascus, Syria, were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent sarin. Hundreds were killed in the attack, which took place over a short span of time in the early morning. Estimates of the death toll range from at least 281[2] to 1,729 fatalities.[13] The incident may be the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran–Iraq War.
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wikipedia
Well, the pressure on the Assad regime has largely subsided as part of the West's hysteria about the ISIL emergence and its territorial gains. Anything seems to have taken a backseat, including a regime that is perfectly willing to massacre part of its own population.
So what happens? The war crimes continue.
Let's not forget, Syria is a party to the Chemical Weapons convention, effective as of October 2013 (largely due to the fallout of the Ghouta atrocity).
Today, there were closed door proceedings at the UN Security Council:
The 15 envoys heard a report by a Syrian doctor who said that he last month treated victims of a chlorine bomb attack on the village of Sarmin, near Idlib in northern Syria, that killed six people, including three children.
and
That attack took place on March 16 - just ten days after a rare moment of agreement when the Security Council passed a resolution condemning the use of chlorine.
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Al Jazeera
Apparently, the eyewitness accounts and the video were so traumatic that the representatives present were moved to tears. The gas was dropped from helicopters. No other fighting forces employ helicopters in the area other than the Syrian government. Assad keeps defying the UN and at most gets a slap on the hand in the form a resolution.
This is truly sickening to the stomach. The plight of the people left behind in Syria is simply unbearable. Stuck in bombed out cities surrounded by warring factions, subject to regular bombardment by the government and shelling by other groups, with hardly any intact infrastructure or fresh food, they are burning plastic to obtain fuel (Syria Deeply) and eating leaves to stay alive (Guardian, 2014).
Yet, the war planes and drones are only hitting ISIL targets. Why?! Is, in some cynical scenario, the Assad regime a lesser evil than ISIL and when considered as a counterforce, it is left alone to rampage and employ chemical weapons against a helpless population until ISIL has been contained? So sad.
Meanwhile, check out this refugee camp (in Jordan) image, via Steve Pennels from the Australian: https://twitter.com/.... It's from last year, and the camp has probably grown since then...