Syria chemical attack Syria chemical attack: Chlorine gas, mustard gas, sarin, and possibly VX ─ chemical warfare agents apparently have been used repeatedly since late 2012 by Bashar al-Assad's regime and perhaps by Syrian opposition factions, including ISIS, in a spiraling civil war of atrocity upon atrocity. Syrian civilian men, women and children have frequently been the victims of chemical warfare attacks. And, now the Khan Sheikhoun attack. Has Assad finally crossed the "red line"? Syrian civil war: On 5 April, one day after the Khan Sheikhoun attack, Padraic Flanagan of the Independent reported, "Even six years of unrelenting horror in Syria could not dull the sense of outrage yesterday after regime aircraft appeared to slaughter more than 100 men, women and children with chemical weapons - and then attack the survivors in another aerial assault. It was one of the worst massacres in a conflict that has claimed the lives of 400,000 Syrians and forced five million to flee their homes." Chemical warfare: Death by small arms fire, high explosives, or incineration are horrible, but death by chemical warfare agents is considered particularly heinous. That in part was why the Geneva Protocol, a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in armed conflicts, was signed in June 1925. Syria's president Bashar al- Assad and other factions are clearly ignoring the Geneva Protocol and disregarding condemnation from the international community. In Syria Chemical Attack: Chemical Warfare ─ Sinking Deeper Into the Abyss , journalists of the Independent chronicle the use of chemical agents in Syria since 2012, providing a focused collection of insightful reporting on a barbarity that finally may be emerging as a subject of real international outrage.