Syrian government forces used Soviet-made air-dropped bombs — known as KhAB-250 and KhAB-500 — specifically designed to deliver sarin gas in their recent attack on Idlib province, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has concluded.
Remnants of a bomb found in Idlib are
marked with a double green line, the standard decal for the KhAB-250, the international organization wrote in a report released today.
“These remnants, combined with witness observations, the victims’ symptoms, and the identification of sarin as the chemical used in the attack by the French and Turkish governments and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, suggest that the Syrian warplane dropped a factory-made sarin bomb," the report concludes. "According to open source material, the KhAB-250 bomb, and its bigger version, the KhAB-500, are Soviet-produced bombs designed specifically to deliver sarin."
According to HRW, new evidence also supports the conclusion that Syrian government forces have used nerve agents on at least four occasions in recent months: in the April 4, 2017 chemical attack in Idlib province that killed at least 92 people, and on three other occasions in December 2016 and March 2017.
