France’s Foreign Minister says Syria used chemical agents – especially chlorine – in as many as 14 attacks in recent months.  This is despite last year’s agreement to renounce such weapons and the international effort to rid Syria of is chemical weapons stocks.

Laurent Fabius also said he regretted the West’s decision against using force to reign in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after last August’s chemical weapons attacks.  He didn’t specify how a military strike would have improved the situation, other than to say, “we feel that it would have changed many things.”

Fabius’ assertions about chlorine weapons came after Human Rights Watch issued a report claiming Syrian government troops are still using chemical weapons.

“Evidence strongly suggests that Syrian government helicopters dropped barrel bombs embedded with cylinders of chlorine gas on three towns in northern Syria in mid-April 2014,” HRW’s report stated.  All three towns – Kafr Zita, Al-Temana, and Telmans – are under rebel control.  Doctors who treated victims said at least 11 people were killed and 500 people suffered “symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine”.