Indeed, gas attacks are becoming so commonplace that U.N. monitors are having serious problems keeping up. Even as word of alleged atrocities spreads on social media in real time, international agencies like the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, offer few answers.

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Consider the deadly April 17 sarin gas attack on Khan Shaykhun, a Syrian rebel stronghold. Hundreds of civilians suffered chemical poisoning and approximately 90 died, chiefly women and children. Images of the devastating aftermath were widely shared on social media. The government of Bashar al-Assad quickly denied responsibility and Moscow, its key alley, has continued to support it.

Moving quicker than the international community, on April 7 President Donald Trump ordered a targeted missile strike on the Syrian airbase used, he said, by the aircraft that launched the nerve gas attack.

“Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children," Trump stated later that week. "It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during an interview with AFP in the capital Damascus, on April 12, 2017. Syrian Presidency Press Office via AFP - Getty Images file

Even with Trump’s apparent backing, however, it took six months for the U.N.’s Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to confirm Assad was responsible. The U.N. agency also took six months to confirm that Assad was responsible for similar nerve gas strikes in late March. Importantly, this time-lag helps perpetrators escape justice — by the time the actual culprits are named, the world has moved on to other atrocities.

Case in point: It took the OPCW a full 18 months to publish its report on an April 18, 2014 gas attack — though it relied on the same material I found soon after the strike.

The medical charity Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations had asked me to investigate an alleged gas attack in Talmenes, a town in northern Syria. I ran soil tests that revealed “sizeable and unambiguous traces of chlorine and ammonia” and issued a statement at that time. In contrast, the OPCW’s report seemed to be delayed at every turn. (Granted, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fierce resistance to any investigation was a big hindrance.)

The Syrian regime is also alleged to have used chemical weapons during last year’s attack on the city of Aleppo. Syrian and Russian air strikes were deadly, but chemical attacks were terrifying. The citizens could hide from bombs, doctors working in Aleppo told me, but they felt helpless when it came to poison gas.

One of the worst attacks in recent memory took place on August 21, 2013, when close to 1,500 people were killed in the Syrian city of East Ghouta. The victims succumbed to sarin gas, according to Human Rights Watch, which also blamed Assad for ordering the strike.