Seven years after the chemical massacre perpetrated by the Syrian regime in Khan Sheikhoun, the memory remains vivid in the minds of the victims’ families.
Abdelhamid Al-Youssef, one of the survivors of the Khan Sheikhoun sarin attack, lives with the memory of losing 11 members of his family, including his wife and twin children, Aya and Hamid.
At the time of the massacre, Al-Youssef was in his home in Khan Sheikhoun. He took his wife, children, and neighboring children to a shelter and went back to rescue the remaining family members. He lost consciousness during the rescue operation, and when he woke up, his friends informed him that he had lost all his family members.
In the documentary film “Awaited Justice,” produced by the Chemical Violations Documentation Center in Syria, Al-Youssef described saying goodbye to his family as “the hardest farewell of his life.”
Al-Youssef stated that he experiences the same pain each year on the anniversary of the massacre, emphasizing that the pain has not left him over the past years. He has called for justice for the victims of the massacre and for the perpetrators, including President Bashar al-Assad, to be held accountable.
On April 4, 2017, Syrians awoke to news of the deaths of about 91 civilians, including 32 children, and the injury of at least 520 others from the city of Khan Sheikhoun.
In June 2017, the OPCW’s Fact-Finding Mission confirmed that the civilian victims were exposed to sarin gas, which is considered a banned “chemical weapon.”
A UN report released on October 26, 2017, confirmed that the Syrian regime was responsible for the chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun, despite the regime and its ally Russia denying their involvement and claiming the incident was “fabricated.”
assad_regime chemical_attack chemical_weapons justice_on_hold khan_shaykhun syria
