UN investigators have released a report saying that they believe chemical weapons were “probably used” as many as five times in Syria, saying they have evidence “consistent with the probable use” of them for those cases.
The report (pdf) follows up on preliminary reports on the Ghouta attack, which at the time was being used by the US as a pretext to invade Syria. That plan was eventually scraped in the face of overwhelming opposition.
Still, the reporting continued, and the investigators once against deliberately ducked the question of who used the chemical weapons, leaving that open to interpretation and, if the preliminary report was any indication, different nations will spin it to fit their own narratives.
The report did note that the victims in two of the five cases were Syrian military soldiers, and that in a third case, the victims were both soldiers and civilians.
Perhaps most interestingly, the two that targeted Syrian soldiers exclusively came after the US had already threatened to invade Syria, and both were reported first by the Syrian government. This suggests that a rebel faction likely was trying to grease the wheels for a US invasion.