New Report Shows Assad's Government Used Chemical Weapons

In a latest development, evidence showing Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria used chemical weapons on its citizens has surfaced. A new report by a chemical weapons watchdog offers with a "high degree of certainty" that toxic chlorine gas was used on civilians.

The 117-page report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has accounts from eyewitnesses from three Syrian villages in Hama and Idlib. Many residents of the region said they had seen helicopters and "smelled chlorine" when bombs struck. It has been learnt that only the Syrian regime used helicopters during the civil war.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power posted on Twitter that the United Nations Security Council reviewed the report Tuesday.

"UNSC met on Syria CW today and reviewed more compelling eyewitness evidence of chlorine gas use by Syrian regime," Power tweeted.

"32 witnesses saw or heard sound of helicopters as bombs struck; 29 smelled chlorine. Only Syrian regime uses helos (helicopters)," she said.

The report also consists of photographs and screen grabs of purported barrel bombs with chlorine and yellow clouds that followed the attacks that took place last year, Reuters reports. The report, however, did not mention any side.

The Assad-led government has repeatedly been blamed for the use of chemical weapons in Syria that ended up harming civilians. But, the Syrian government time and again stated that it wasn't them, but the rebel forces.

After a sarin gas attack in the village of Ghouta in Auguts 2013 ended up claiming lives of hundres, the fight to end the use of chemical weapons in Syria gathered momentum.

The UN disarmament head Angela Kane has said that all chemical weapons production facilities in Syria will be destroyed by June.