"GENEVA -- U.N.-mandated human rights investigators said Wednesday that they believed the Syrian government dropped the chemical agent chlorine on civilian areas on eight different occasions in April.

'Reasonable grounds exist to believe that chemical agents, likely chlorine, were used on (northern Syrian villages) Kafr Zeita, al-Tamana and Tal Minnis in eight incidents within a 10-day period in April,' the report said.

'Witnesses saw helicopters drop barrel bombs and smelled a scent akin to domestic chlorine immediately following impact.' Victims, it said, had suffered 'symptoms compatible with exposure to chemical agents, namely vomiting, eye and skin irritation, choking and other respiratory problems.'"

Nina Larson reports for AFP August 27, 2014. [2]