U.N. Security Council Sees Video Evidence of a Chemical Attack in Syria

UNITED NATIONS - 17 Apr 2015— One Monday night in March, the sound of helicopters, then a thud, then the smell of bleach, overpowering, followed by a surge of wounded to the local hospital. They were all short of breath. Some vomited. All reeked of bleach.
This is what Dr. Mohamed Tennari, 35, from the Syrian town of Sarmeen, told diplomats on the United Nations Security Council on Thursday in a closed-door meeting called by the United States to draw attention to suspicions of the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon in the war in Syria.
Dr. Tennari showed a video taken at the hospital that he ran. In it, two children are piled on their grandmother’s body. A third, a baby, is on the next bed. Their mouths are open. Gloved hands give them oxygen, then an injection. Dr. Tennari says later that all three children, ages 1 to 3, died. Their parents, too, and their grandmother.
Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters after the session that there were few “dry eyes in the room,” and that the Council would seek to determine who was responsible and hold them accountable.
“We need an attribution mechanism so we know precisely who carried out these attacks,” she said.
The United States, along with its allies Britain and France, has accused the Syrian government of dropping chlorine-filled bombs — “only the Assad regime has helicopters,” Ms. Power said Thursday. 
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in late March that it was monitoring reports of chlorine use in aerial bombardments in Syria. The agency confirmed in September that chlorine had been used “repeatedly and systematically” in bombing three villages in northern Syria, but its report stopped short of saying who used it.
The Security Council passed a binding resolution in early March prohibiting the use of toxic chemicals like chlorine as weapons of war in Syria. It did not assign blame either.