Khan Sheikhun

U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to the Syrian government not to carry out a chemical weapons attack appears to have worked, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said on June 28.

"It appears that they took the warning seriously," Mattis said, referring to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be preparing another chemical weapons attack, one that would result in the "mass murder" of civilians, the White House said on June 26, warning the regime would pay a "heavy price" if it went ahead with such an assault.

A Turkish aid agency on May 22 opened a shopping mall in the war-torn Syrian province of Idlib for families living in the region.        

Erhan Yemelek, the Humanitarian Relief Organization's (İHH) Syria coordinator, told state-run Anadolu Agency that the mall has shops for groceries, clothes and shoes, and it will also be used as a site to organize social activities.        

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in Israel on April 21 that there can be "no doubt" Syria has retained some chemical weapons and warned President Bashar al-Assad's regime not to use them.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov began tense talks in Moscow on Wednesday as the two sides locked horns over an alleged Syrian chemical attack and subsequent missile strike by Washington.

The United States has "no doubt" that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for last week's chemical attack on a rebel-held town that left dozens dead, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Tuesday, reported AFP.

Moscow and Tehran have furiously condemned the American air strike on a Syrian air base on April 7, which marked the first direct U.S. assault on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Al-Assad's office called the strike "foolish and irresponsible" and Moscow announced a series of retaliatory steps, including plans to strengthen Syrian air defenses.

U.S. forces fired a barrage of cruise missiles at a Syrian air base on April 7 in response to a suspected chemical attack earlier in the week, with U.S. allies rallying around Washington after the strike. 

The death toll from a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held Syrian town has risen to 72, 20 of them children, a monitoring group said on Wednesday, cited by AFP.

"There were also 17 women among the dead and the death toll could rise further because there are people missing," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Countries across the world and international organizations have reacted to a suspected gas attack in Syria that killed some 58 people, including 11 children, amid calls for international action.