Forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad fired banned chemical weapons at Syrian rebel enclaves at least three times this year, bringing the total number of such incidents to more than 30 confirmed by United Nations investigators since the start of the seven-year conflict, according to a new report. In one incident, government helicopters fired two barrel bombs on a district of Saraqeb in February, a town in the rebel-controlled province of Idlib, which is now in the midst of a fresh government offensive. The munitions gave off a strange smell, said the report of the independent commission convened by the the UN’s Human Rights Council to probe human rights violations and deprivations suffered in the Syrian war. “Victims described symptoms consistent with the use of chlorine, including shortness of breath, a burning throat, coughing, dilated pupils and chest pain, and also recalled a smell similar to household detergents,” said the report. The findings in the 24-page report cover January to July of 2018. The conclusions are based on 402 interviews, as well as satellite imagery, photographs, videos, and medical records, along with consultations with aid organisations and government officials. The findings of chemical weapons use come as Syrian government forces, allied Iranian-backed militias, and Russian pilots and advisers prepare an all-out offensive against Syria’s last major rebel enclave in the Idlib province. “The Commission of Inquiry demands that all parties to the conflict and those states who support them do everything in their power to prevent a massacre in Idlib,” the war crimes investigators said in a statement read out by panel chairman Paulo Pinheiro to a news conference. ✕ Airstrikes in in Idlib, northwestern Syria The report comes at a diplomatically sensitive time. The US, France, and other countries have warned Syria and its backers not to use chemical weapons in the Idlib offensive. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the Syrian rebels are preparing to attack themselves with chemical weapons in order to trigger airstrikes by the west. Citing unnamed residents, Russia’s ministry of defence claimed that film crews from “Middle East” television channels had arrived to film “staged” scenes of people suffering from chemical weapons attacks. But the UN report says at least two of incidents it documented in Syria “follow a pattern previously documented by the commission concerning the use of chemical weapons by government forces and consistently observed since April 2014.” On 22 January and 1 February chlorine loaded onto rockets struck the eastern Ghouta district on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. UN investigators said the missiles used in those attacks “have been used only by government forces” or allied militias. “Specifically, the munitions documented were built around industrially produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to forces commanded by the government of the Syrian Arab Republic,” said the report. Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Show all 13 1 /13 Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition as during a protest against the regime and its ally Russia, in the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan in the north of Idlib province AFP/Getty Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters from the recently-formed "National Liberation Front" stand guard over a trench as rebels prepare defensive positions in anticipation for an upcoming government forces offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters pile-up sandbags AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter looks through an embrasure in a make-shift bunker AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive Syrian rebel fighters walk through a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian protester waves a flag of the opposition AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive A Syrian rebel fighter stands guard over a trench AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Fears for 3m people in rebel-held Idlib ahead of regime offensive AFP/Getty Images Despite claims by some western officials that the war in Syria in winding down, the report described a particularly ferocious stretch of fighting this year in which one million people were displaced. The report says that 5.5 million Syrians have fled the country, and 6.5 million displaced inside the country. “It is completely inexcusable that no party to this conflict adhered to their obligations towards civilians displaced by their military operations,” Mr Pinheiro, the Brazilian jurist who chairs the investigative commission, said. The report also directed criticism at Turkey, which launched military operations against the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave, for inflicting civilian casualties, displacing thousands, and unleashing unruly allied militias on people in the country’s northwest Afrin district. The commission accused anti-Assad rebels, including some that are extremists, of abuses within their areas of control and indiscriminate attacks on civilians in loyalist enclaves. But the report reserved the bulk of its criticism and attention on the regime, which it bluntly accused of violations of international law. “The commission finds that pro-government forces committed the war crimes of deliberately attacking protected objects, intentionally attacking medical personnel and using prohibited weapons,” the report said. “On four occasions, pro-government forces did not direct attacks at a specific military objective, which amounted to the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas.”<doc-sep>White House National Security Adviser John Bolton warned Syria on Monday that any use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people will result in a "much stronger response" than those following two previous incidents. The warning comes as Syrian, Russian, and pro-regime forces surround Idlib, the last rebel stronghold and the final obstacle for the Syrian government led by brutal Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the deadly civil war. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dunford said over the weekend that the Pentagon is already preparing military options should President Donald Trump order a military response to the use of chemical weapons. Both the Pentagon and the White House have stressed that the response to any use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime will be swift. President Donald Trump's national security adviser issued a crystal clear warning to Syria on Monday, stressing that if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons again, it will face a "much stronger" response than before. "We’ve tried to convey the message in recent days that if there’s a third use of chemical weapons, the response will be much stronger," White House National Security Adviser John Bolton said Monday, "I can say we have been in consultations with the British and the French who have joined us in the second strike, and they also agree that another use of chemical weapons will result in a much stronger response." The United Nations has accused Syria of launching dozens of chemical weapons attacks using both sarin and chlorine gas, and in response to two particularly devastating incidents, the US used military force to persuade the Syrian regime to adhere to acceptable warfighting methods. The US first struck Syria on April 7, 2017, striking the Shayrat Airbase in Syria with 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from the Mediterranean Sea in response to the use of chemical weapons (sarin) at Khan Shaykhun just three days earlier. The chemical weapons attack, attributed to the Syrian regime, reportedly killed more than 70 people and injured over 550 more, at the time making it the deadliest such attack of the Syrian civil war since the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta four years prior. The devastating attack just a few months into Trump's presidency reportedly led the president to call Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and demand the assassination of the Syrian leadership. "Let's f---ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f---ing lot of them," Trump told Mattis, according to an excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book "Fear: Trump in the White House" the subject of much debate and controversy. The president, Mattis, and the Pentagon have all denied that the conversations detailed in the book ever took place. Almost one year after the first incident, the Syrian regime allegedly launched a second major chemical weapons assault on a suburb in Damascus, killing dozens of people in Douma. The US, supported by Britain and France, conducted coordinated strikes on Syria's chemical weapons facilities, crippling but not eliminating the regime's chemical weapons capabilities. The strikes came from both sea and air, whereas the previous strikes were launched by two destroyers. Syrian, Russian, and pro-regime forces are now massing around Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria, and the US government has intelligence that the Syrian government may again use chemical weapons. The Pentagon has already begun preparing military options should the president decide to respond militarily to any use of chemical weapons in the Idlib offensive. "The president expects us to have military options in the event that chemical weapons are used," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said Saturday, "We have provided updates to him on the development of those military options." White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned last week that the US will respond "swiftly and appropriately" should Assad use chemical weapons against the Syrian people, and Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning explained Monday that "the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated by the US or the coalition." "As you have seen in the past, any use of chemical weapons has resulted in a very swift response by the United States and our coalition partners. We have communicated that to Damascus, and we hope that they adhere to it."<doc-sep>Footage meant to serve as proof that the Syrian government has conducted a chemical weapon attack in Idlib, Syria will be provided to global news outlets by the end of Tuesday, the Russian military claims. Several Middle East TV channels and a US news channel have been sent to Jisr al-Shughur in Syria’s Idlib Governorate to produce the footage needed for the provocation, a statement by the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation said. It added that the intelligence came from local residents of Jisr al-Shughur. Read more “All the footage of the staged provocation in Jisr al-Shughur is to be delivered to the newsrooms of TV channels, which are to broadcast it after its publication on social media,” the statement claims. It also said that an Islamist group was provided with two canisters of a “chlorine-based chemical” for the purpose of the operation. The Russian military said the footage would include scenes of White Helmets operatives treating supposed victims of an apparent barrel bomb chemical weapon attack by Damascus. Moscow has repeatedly warned that a false flag chemical weapon attack was being prepared in Idlib, giving the US and its allies justification to attack Syrian government forces. Senior US officials have threatened Damascus with retaliation if it uses chemical weapons in Idlib and even preemptively assigned the blame for any such attack to the government. Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzya stressed that Damascus does not possess any chemical weapons to begin with. Any incident with such weaponry would only benefit militants fighting the Syrian government. “The false-flag attack by the adversaries of Damascus, who count on foreign armed support, is very possible. We have irrefutable evidence of preparations [for it],” Nebenzya stated. 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Send this page to someone via email Syrian government forces fired chlorine, a banned chemical weapon, on a rebel-held Damascus suburb and on Idlib province this year, in attacks that constitute war crimes, United Nations human rights investigators said on Wednesday. The three incidents bring to 39 the number of chemical attacks which the Commission of Inquiry on Syria has documented since 2013, including 33 attributed to the government, a U.N. official told Reuters. The perpetrators of the remaining six have not been sufficiently identified. Weaponising chlorine is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention, ratified by Syria, and under customary international humanitarian law, the investigators said in their latest report. “To recapture eastern Ghouta in April, government forces launched numerous indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, which included the use of chemical weapons,” it said, referring to incidents on Jan. 22 and Feb. 1 in a residential area of Douma, eastern Ghouta, outside the capital. Story continues below advertisement Women and children were injured in the attacks, suffering respiratory distress and requiring oxygen, it added. “Indiscriminate attacks” “The Commission concludes that, on these two occasions, government forces and or affiliated militias committed the war crimes of using prohibited weapons and launching indiscriminate attacks in civilian-populated areas in eastern Ghouta,” it said. A surface-to-surface, improvised rocket-assisted munition had been used in the two Douma incidents, it said. “Specifically the munitions documented were built around industrially-produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to forces commanded by the (Syrian) government,” the report added. In the northwest province of Idlib – where the United Nations fears a major imminent assault by Syrian and Russian forces against the last rebel-held stronghold – chlorine was also used on February 4, the U.N. report said. WATCH: At least four dead after airstrikes by Russia on rebel-held stronghold in Syria 1:11 At least four dead after airstrikes by Russia on rebel-held stronghold in Syria At least four dead after airstrikes by Russia on rebel-held stronghold in Syria – Sep 8, 2018 “Government helicopters dropped at least two barrels carrying chlorine payloads in the Taleel area of Saraqeb,” it said, adding that at least 11 men were injured. Story continues below advertisement “Documentary and material evidence analyzed by the Commission confirmed the presence of helicopters in the area and the use of two yellow gas cylinders.” Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Documentary and material evidence analyzed by the Commission confirmed the presence of helicopters in the area and the use of two yellow gas cylinders." The report, based on 400 interviews, also examined aerial and ground attacks by Turkey’s ‘Operation Olive Branch’, conducted with allied Syrian rebels, which wrestled the northwest Afrin region from Syrian Kurdish forces this spring. Afrin’s main hospital, a market and homes were hit, it said. “In conducting airstrikes beginning on 20 January, the Turkish air force may have failed to take all feasible precautions prior to launching certain attacks, in violation of international humanitarian law,” the report said. Rebels of the Free Syrian Army were “notorious for their arbitrary arrests and detention” in Afrin, it added. More than a million civilians were displaced in six major battles across Syria during the first six months of the year, many marked by war crimes, the report said. Thousands of displaced civilians still live in dire conditions in severely overcrowded centers, “where many are still being unlawfully interned by Government forces,” it said.