Mustard gas use in Syria conflict confirmed

Mustard gas was used during summer fighting in Syria but it was not clear by whom, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Nov 5, while jihadists seized a key town from regime forces.

The deadly gas was used in the flashpoint town of Marea in the northern province of Aleppo on August 21, a source from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) told AFP.
 
"We have determined the facts, but we have not determined who was responsible," the source said.
 
Allegations that jihadist militants have been using chemical arms have been increasing in recent months in both Iraq and Syria.
 
Syrian rebels and aid groups said that at the end of August dozens of people were affected by a chemical attack on Marea, where moderate opposition rebels and militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group were battling.
 
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said it had treated four civilians from one family. Patients at an MSF hospital in Aleppo said they saw a "yellow gas" when a mortar round hit their house.
 
Meanwhile, bolstered by a Russian air campaign launched in September, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have been fighting to retake territory lost to rebels in the country's brutal four-year war but have failed to score significant gains.
 
On Nov 5 a jihadist faction, Jund al-Aqsa, was reported to have seized the last government-held town on the main highway between Syria's second city Aleppo to the north and the city of Hama to the south.
 
They "seized full control of the town of Morek after a fierce offensive", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.    

Jund al-Aqsa boasted of victory in Morek on its Twitter...