Syrian authorities arrest ex-officer accused of chemical weapons crimes

Syrian authorities have arrested former colonel Ahmed Habib Ali, a chemical weapons specialist accused of supervising the manufacture of sarin gas bombs used in attacks on Syrian cities in 2013 and 2017. His detention comes amid a wider series of arrests of former officials from the ousted Assad regime, following Syria's reinstatement into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The deadliest chemical attack, in 2013, killed over 1,400 people, and despite a pledge to surrender its arsenal, the regime was later accused of further sarin and chlorine attacks.