Grim centenary of chemical warfare as Syrian civilians face gas attacks
Chlorine gas, first deployed during first world war, is now used in Syria
Exactly one century ago today, German troops opened the taps on a line of chlorine tanks to send a poisonous cloud drifting across no-man's-land and into the trenches of the Allies during the first world war. The gas blinded soldiers and made them retch, vomit and choke, combining with bodily fluids to destroy the lungs.
Today, chemical warfare has come full circle.
Reports from Syria about chemical weapons used in that conflict also involve chlorine - a widely available substance that has many legitimate industrial and commercial uses. Both government forces and insurgents deny accusations of using the deadly gas.
A report last year by a fact-finding mission set up by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said a toxic chemical, almost certainly chlorine, was used repeatedly in attacks on a number of villages in Northern Syria.
"Leaves on plants ... wilted 'like autumn leaves'" it cited witnesses as saying. "In one case, a child standing close to the impact site died later because of exposure to the toxic chemical."
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the report's findings pointed to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad using chlorine as a weapon.