On April 4, 2017, at about 03.30 GMT, the town of Khan Shaykun in Idlib (northwestern Syria) was stormed by the Syrian Arab Air Force. Immediately after the attack, the victims – mostly civilians – started to show symptoms of exposure to neurotoxic chemical agents. Analyses of biomedical samples by various state and non- state actors suggested that sarin, a very rapidly acting, extremely lethal, and non- persistent nerve agent, was in fact used. Further radar trace assessments and review of the previously obtained signals intelligence inputs linked the chemical agent delivery to the Su-22 squadron from the Shayrat Airbase
On April 19, 2017, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) shared laboratory results that indicated exposure to sarin and sarin-like substances
The incident marked yet another utilization of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by the Baathist regime of Syria since the 2013 Ghouta attack. It also presented clear evidence of Syria’s violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. In fact, both experts closely monitoring Syria’s chemical weapons program
However, the Khan Shaykun attack differed from the previous chemical weapons (CW) uses by the regime in regards to its consequences. This time, the US administration ordered a punitive and surgical strike delivered by 59 Tomahawk Block IV cruise missiles launched from two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in the Mediterranean in the early morning of April 7, 2017
The Tomahawk salvo targeted Shayrat Airbase, which is important for broader strategic reasons. Satellite imagery previously revealed that the Russians had deployed attack helicopters in al-Shayrat
This report aims to assess the Syrian Baathist regime’s ‘geopolitical algorithm’ for using chemical weapons, Assad’s forces’ military-geostrategic approach to the conflict, and the Syrian Arab Armed Forces’ doctrinal understanding of weapons of mass destruction in the course of the civil war. The preferred title for the study is ‘The Shayrat Connection’ for a clear reason. It is thought that Hafez al-Assad’s legacy of quelling the 1982 Hama uprising, doctrinal approaches of the Syrian chemical weapons command structure, praetorian cliques within the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, and further trajectory of the civil war all revolve around this Shayrat connection.