A senior Israeli Defense Forces official said Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons more than 30 times since August when Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, Times of Israel reports.
"From the day that he signed the deal, [Assad] has used chemical weapons over thirty times, and in every case citizens were killed," the officer said, adding that the weapons were "tactically deployed" with mortars and short-range rockets.
According to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Assad’s regime was now focused on developing "non-classic" unconventional weapons based on weaker gas such as chlorine.
"We cannot say which type of chemical weapons, but factually, we can say he has used what we call ‘non-classic’ substances, which, in the end, have killed citizens," he said.
The officer asserted that although Syria’s joining of the Chemical Weapons Convention had significantly reduced the threat of a chemical attack on Israel, Assad still aimed to produce weapons that could be deployed despite Syria’s membership in the CWC.