BBC News: Syria chemical attack: What we know (24 September 2013) >A team of UN chemical weapons inspectors have confirmed that the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack on the Ghouta agricultural belt around Damascus on the morning of 21 August. The attack was the deadliest single incident in the Syrian conflict so far. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the UN Security Council that he believed the attack constituted a war crime. The UN report, he said, detailed the "most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them" in Halabja in 1988. Within hours, dozens of videos were uploaded of large numbers of distressed and visibly sick adults and children with no external signs of injury. In some of the most graphic footage, dozens of bodies, including many small children and babies, were seen laid out in rows on the floors of clinics and mosques, and on streets in Muadhamiya, Ein Tarma, Zamalka and nearby areas. The Syrian government and military denied being behind the 21 August attack, describing the allegations made by Western powers as "false and completely baseless" and challenging them to present incontrovertible proof.< http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23927399 BBC News - Syria 'chemical attack': What we know (April 6 2017) >At least 80 people have been killed in a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in north-western Syria. Hundreds suffered symptoms consistent with reaction to a nerve agent after what the opposition and Western powers said was a Syrian government air strike on the area on Tuesday morning. The Syrian military denied using any chemical agents, while its ally Russia said an air strike hit a rebel depot full of chemical munitions. Has Sarin been used in Syria before? The Syrian government was accused by Western powers of firing rockets filled with Sarin at several rebel-held suburbs of the capital Damascus in August 2013, killing hundreds of people. President Bashar al-Assad denied the charge, blaming rebel fighters, but he did subsequently agree to destroy Syria's declared chemical arsenal.< http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39500947