UK's Johnson says Assad guilty of war crime if behind suspected gas attack

LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday Syria's President Bashar al-Assad would be guilty of a war crime if it were proved his regime was responsible for a suspected chemical weapons attack on the Syrian rebel-held province of Idlib.

"If this were proved to have been committed by the Assad regime then it would be another reason to think they are an absolutely heinous outfit, it is a war crime," Johnson told reporters at a news conference in London.

"Bombing your own civilians with chemical weapons is unquestionably a war crime and they must be held to account."

The suspected Syrian government chemical attack killed at least 58 people, including 11 children, but a Syrian military source denied the army had used any such weapons.