Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Media, Law & Policy

Syrian Accountability Project Releases New Report on April 4 Chemical Attack in Khan Sheikhoun

Wednesday, April 19, 2017, By News Staff
Share
College of LawSyrian Accountability Project

The Syrian Accountability Project, an initiative at Syracuse College of Law, is unveiling new evidence that the catastrophic gas attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun was a crime against humanity and a war crime.

The 45-member organization, staffed by College of Law students and led by Professor David Crane, a former war crimes prosecutor, has released its latest white paper, “Idlib Left Breathless: A Report on the Chemical Attack in Khan Sheikhoun.”

Report title pageThe paper details the April 4, 2017, attack that killed at least 87 people and injured more than 500. The paper offers compelling evidence that the gas used in the attack was the nerve agent sarin, one of the most potent and fast-acting chemical weapons, banned under international law ever since the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

“This white paper continues the Syrian Accountability Project’s careful analysis of war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been committed by all sides during the six-year-long Syrian Civil War, a list of horrors that beyond the use of chemical weapons also includes the torture of prisoners, siege of cities, denial of humanitarian aid, rape and deliberate targeting of civilian populations,” says Crane. “Our aim is to provide future prosecutors with a database of evidence that will help the Syrian people seek justice for these crimes after the war concludes. To this end, we will send this and other analyses to the newly created United Nations Syrian Accountability Center, which was formed with my help in December 2016.”

The white paper’s sources include first-hand accounts of the chemical attack, subsequent news reports from both local and international news agencies, and other open-source materials. The Syrian government denies that it launched the attack.

The chemical attack happened at 6 a.m. on April 4 when two or three aerial strikes occurred on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, located in northwestern Syria, a stronghold of anti-Assad forces. People reported choking and gasping for air, and first responders reported people lying on the ground and convulsing, symptoms that are consistent with the use of a nerve agent such as sarin.

Specifically, sarin gas targets a body’s neurotransmitters, and even in small doses it can quickly cause respiratory failure due to lung paralysis. Unlike chlorine gas, a powerful irritant that also has been reportedly used during the Syrian Civil War, sarin is lethal even when dispersed outdoors. Images from the attack, including the deaths of young children, shocked the world, and they were the catalyst for the United States government to reverse its current policy toward directly targeting the Assad Regime by launching 59 missiles on April 7 at the Syrian air force base where the attack was unleashed.

The white paper was written by College of Law students Kaitlyn Degnan, Andrew Dieselman, Kseniia Guliaeva, Casey Kooring, Sean Mills, Zachary Lucas and Colin Tansits. Further support for the project came from Newhouse School Associate Professor Ken Harper, first director of the Newhouse Center for Global Engagement. Margaret Mabie was responsible for the graphic design of the paper.

This is not the first white paper detailing crimes against humanity and war crimes by the Syrian Accountability Project. In 2016, the project released the groundbreaking “Looking Through the Window Darkly, a Snapshot Analysis of Rape in Syria, 2011-2015,” which analyzed 142 sexual crimes perpetrated by all sides in the Syrian Civil War and which revealed that the Syrian Regime perpetrated 62 percent of the total incidents.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Syracuse Views Spring 2022
    Sunday, May 15, 2022, By News Staff
  • Black Hole Image Shows Einstein Was Right, Once Again
    Thursday, May 12, 2022, By Daryl Lovell
  • Section of South Crouse Avenue to Close Temporarily for Utility Project
    Thursday, May 12, 2022, By News Staff
  • Investing in the Bedrock of Discovery: New Endowed Professorship in Quantum Science
    Wednesday, May 11, 2022, By News Staff
  • Meditation and Mindfulness Platform Coming to Barnes Center at The Arch
    Wednesday, May 11, 2022, By John Boccacino

More In Media, Law & Policy

College of Law Holds Commencement for Class of 2022

On Friday, May 6, the College of Law held Commencement for its 199 J.D. and 33 LL.M. graduates. The event, the first in-person Commencement since 2019, featured the first cohort of graduating online J.D. students. Luke Cooper L’01, CEO of…

College of Law Graduates Inaugural Class of Its Groundbreaking Online JDinteractive Program

On May 6, students in the inaugural class of Syracuse University College of Law’s first-of-its-kind JDinteractive (JDi) program graduated alongside their peers in the college’s residential J.D. program. JDi, a fully ABA-accredited program, was the first to combine live online…

Professor Cora True-Frost G’01, L’01 Awarded Fulbright for Research on European Tribunals and International Disability Law

Cora True-Frost G’01, L’01, Bond, Schoeneck and King Distinguished Professor in the College of Law, has been selected by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Program to join the University of Oslo, Pluricourts as a Fulbright Scholar. Beginning…

Newhouse Alumnus Wins 1 of 5 Student Work Honors in Golden Award of Montreux Competition

Each year, the Switzerland-based Golden Award of Montreux competition includes five advertising student winners from around the world. Newhouse creative advertising alumnus Sam Luo ’21 is the only Gold Medal winner from an advertising school in the U.S. He won…

Sean Branagan Awarded Fulbright Specialist Grant for Estonia Digital Media Innovation Project

What’s next in the digital media entrepreneurship space? Answers to that question are what Sean Branagan ’80, director of the Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and an adjunct faculty member in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, hopes to…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2022 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.