Syria used chemical arms 14 times since October: Fabius

Washington (AFP) - The Syrian regime is believed to have used chemical weapons including chlorine in 14 attacks since late 2013, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday.

Fabius, who is on an official visit to Washington, also voiced France's regrets that US President Barack Obama had failed to carry out threatened US strikes on the Syrian regime as punishment for a sarin gas attack near Damascus in August in which hundreds died.

Obama had threatened US strikes on Syrian regime facilities if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad crossed a red line by using toxic weapons on his own people. But in the end the US leader walked away from carrying out such a targeted attack.

"We regret it because we think it would have changed lots of things ... but what is done is done, and we're not going to rewrite history," Fabius told a press conference.

He alleged, however, that "we have credible witnesses for the use, at least 14 uses... of chemical agents since October 2013."

While Assad has handed over some 92 percent of his chemical weapons stockpile for destruction, "we have lots of elements which lead us to believe that a certain number of these chemical weapons have been hidden," Fabius said.

The 14 reported incidents showed that "in recent weeks, new, smaller quantities of chemical arms have been used, mainly chlorine," he said, adding that France was currently examining the evidence.