A new level of depravity, even for Bashar al-Assad

A second attack on Tuesday hit a clinic treating the victims

For a world that too often seems impervious to the horrors of Syria’s civil war, the photos and videos from Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack, which killed dozens of civilians, bore witness to a new level of atrocity. People gasping for breath, turning blue, lying dead in the street — all victims of airstrikes apparently by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

It was the deadliest chemical attack in years in Syria, a new marker for a leader with a record of brutality dating to 2011, when he turned his weapons on peaceful protesters. A second attack on Tuesday hit a clinic treating the