U.S. sanctions over 270 Syrians after chemical attack

The French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said that samples taken from the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun matched those from a previous incident.

The report said that the chemical found there matches the biological fingerprint of the Assad government's sarin manufacturing process.

These government employees are "highly educated" chemical specialists who are likely to be able to travel outside of Syria and use the global financial system, Trump Administration officials said.

The Treasury Department enacted sanctions against 18 senior regime officials in January in the wake of a joint investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations finding the Assad regime responsible for three chlorine gas attacks.

Investigators also believe Bashar al-Assad would have at least authorised the attack and could even have ordered it himself.

"The command of the Syrian armed forces has expressed readiness to cease hostilities in Khan Sheikhun if a special mission of experts is sent there to investigate the events of April 4", the defence ministry said in a statement.

France has said it has proof Bashar al-Assad's government was behind the recent sarin chemical weapons attack in Syria.

"The United States is sending a strong message with this action that we will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by any actor, and we intend to hold the Assad regime accountable for its unacceptable behavior", he said.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has welcomed the U.S. sanctions, saying they send a warning to those who would use chemical weapons.

After the attack, the US retaliated a few days later by launching cruise missiles against a Syrian air base the Pentagon says was used to launch the chemical attack.

The gruesome chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Syria's Idlib province gravely injured many people who were left with respiratory problems and faced symptoms like vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth.

Russian Federation has previously called for an worldwide inquiry, and Peskov expressed disappointment that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has turned down the Syrian government's offers to visit the site of the attack.

He would not say whether other sanctions related to the attack could be in the works.

Speaking to reporters in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's position on the attack is "unchanged" and that "that the only way to establish the truth about what happened near Idlib is an impartial global investigation".