Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (C) talks to soldiers during a visit to Jobar, northeast of Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on January 1, 2015. Al-Assad visited a district on the outskirts of Dam
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (C) talks to soldiers during a visit to Jobar, northeast of Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA on January 1, 2015. Al-Assad visited a district on the outskirts of Damascus and thanked soldiers fighting "in the face of terrorism", his office said on its Twitter account on Wednesday, posting pictures of the rare trip. The account said the visit took place in Jobar, northeast of Damascus, on the occasion of the New Year. The district came under heavy Syrian air force strikes on Wednesday according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the nearly four-year conflict. Reuters/Sana

The Syrian government had repeatedly attacked its own citizens with poison gas and other chemical weapons in 2014, a report compiled by the global chemical weapons watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, revealed.

With a "high degree of certainty," chemical weapons investigators said the Bashar al-Assad government used chlorine gas against three opposition-controlled villages in Syria in 2014. The 117-page report said that 32 out of 37 interviewed "saw or heard the sound of a helicopter over the village at the time of the attack with barrel bombs containing toxic chemicals." The three villages were identified as Talmanes which encountered two alleged attacks, Al Tamanah with five and Kafr Zita with 14, the latest of which was on Aug 30.

Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, said through her Twitter account that only the Syrian regime had access to helicopters at the time.

Latest OPCW report: 32 witnesses saw or heard sound of helicopters as bombs struck; 29 smelled chlorine. Only Syrian regime uses helos.

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 6, 2015

Many also revealed seeing helicopters and "smelled chlorine" when the bombs went off. About 26 people heard a "whistling" sound of the falling barrel bombs allegedly containing the toxic chemicals, while 16 went to the impact sites and reported seeing the bombs or their remnants. Some 29 people said they smelled "the distinctive odour of the gas cloud" after the bombs hit the ground. The smell was described as "as intense, chlorine-like, similar to cleaning material used to clean toilets, but much stronger."

The report, Power said after a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council, justifies allegations that the four-year-old civil war in Syria involved chemical weapons, and that it was the very government which was using it against the people. As expected, the Syrian government had consistently pointed the finger to the rebel forces as the culprit.

The report, according to Reuters, contains photographs of barrel bombs containing chlorine that were dropped from helicopters. It also included a screen-grab from a video that showed a yellow cloud reaching 50 metres (yards) high right after the barrel detonated and released the poisonous chemicals.

Regime must be shown it is not enough to destroy declared CW; must stop dropping chemical-laden explosives on civilians.

— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) January 6, 2015

After the closed-door meeting, Reuters reported UN Disarmament Chief Angela Kane said the global body hoped to destroy all Syrian chemical weapon-related production facilities by June.