UK blames Assad regime after watchdog documents chlorine attacks

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad heads a meeting of his cabinet in Damascus August 31, 2014 in this picture released by Syria's national news agency SANA. REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The global chemical-weapons watchdog found evidence that chlorine gas was used "systematically and repeatedly" as a weapon in northern Syria, where witnesses described poison barrel bombs crashing into their villages from the sky, the agency said on Wednesday in a report obtained by Reuters.

Reacting to the report, Britain and the United States blamed the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which they said was the only party in the civil war with helicopters.