By Ahmed Asmar
Syrian civilians in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province held a rally Friday to commemorate the victims of a chemical attack by the deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad that killed nearly 100 people, mostly children.
Residents, civil defense teams and activists gathered to honor the victims of the April 4, 2017, attack in northwestern Syria, and demand justice while raising Syrian flags and pictures of the deceased.
Protesters carried banners calling for "Justice for the Victims" and emphasizing that accountability for the crimes of the deposed regime "will not expire with time."
"The criminal regime pressured people by forcing them to give false testimonies about the chemical attack," Emergency and Disasters Minister Raed Al-Saleh told Anadolu."The people are here to demand accountability for the perpetrators, foremost among them the deposed President Bashar al-Assad."
Regime forces targeted the town with chemical weapons, killing about 100 people, most of them children. The Khan Sheikhoun massacre is considered a war crime under international law.
Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party’s regime, which had been in power since 1963.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led anti-regime forces to oust Assad, was declared president for a transitional period on Jan. 29.