Damascus: Friday marks 13 years since rockets carrying the nerve agent sarin tore into the Damascus suburbs of Ghouta before dawn, in what the UN later called the worst use of weapons of mass destruction of the 21st century. Much has changed in Syria since then. Bashar al-Assad's regime collapsed in December 2024, ending the Baath Party's six-decade rule, while a series of arrests, trials, and new revelations has moved the pursuit of accountability closer to home. Survivors, rights activists, and researchers are finally speaking out without the shadow of state retribution, seeking long-delayed justice.

According to Anadolu Agency, Dr. Salim Namour, a physician in eastern Ghouta on the night of the attack, later helped establish and worked as a surgeon at Al-Kahf, the underground field hospital chronicled in the Oscar-nominated documentary 'The Cave.' Today, he heads the Association of Victims of Chemical Weapons (AVCW). Namour described the night of horror when medical personnel rushed to hospitals to treat victims of the sarin attack. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented 1,144 deaths from the Aug. 21 attack, including 194 women and 99 children. Then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the use of sarin a war crime.

The trauma of the attack has lingered. Namour, who co-authored a study published in Scientific Reports, highlighted the lasting psychological and physical impacts on survivors. The study, led by Syrian dentist and public health researcher Bahaa Aldin Alhaffar of Karolinska Institutet, found persistent neurological, eye, and respiratory problems among survivors. Alhaffar emphasized that many survivors were eager to share their experiences, having been silenced for years under Assad's regime.

For years, accountability efforts for the Ghouta attack played out almost entirely outside Syria. In November 2023, French judges issued an international arrest warrant for Assad, his brother, and two senior officers. Mazen Darwish, a lawyer and founder of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), detailed efforts to identify those responsible for the attack. The fall of Assad's regime has opened new avenues for justice, with the establishment of the National Commission for Transitional Justice and recent arrests of former officials linked to the attack.

The chemical weapons file remains open. In May, an OPCW expert team, working with Syrian authorities, discovered undeclared chemical munitions. On July 9, the OPCW's Executive Council reinstated Syria's rights under the Chemical Weapons Convention, citing the new government's cooperation. Survivors like Namour reflect on the changes in Syria. While the memories of loss remain, the fall of Assad's regime and the pursuit of justice provide a sense of hope for a new phase in Syria.