Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that he believes rhetoric from President Donald Trump’s administration is “probably partially to blame” for Syria’s deadly chemical weapons attack on its civilians last week.

The United States is looking into whether Russia participated in the Syrian chemical weapons attack that provoked President Donald Trump's airstrikes against the Assad government, a revelation that could have dramatic implications for relations between Washington and Moscow.

Western powers have condemned Syria for unleashing a chemical attack on civilians in Khan Sheikhoun, a community in a rebel-controlled zone in northwestern Syria. While the details remain in dispute, and Syria denies using chemical weapons, multiple reports from hospitals and other eyewitnesses describe an airstrike followed by victims choking to death.

The U.K.-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports dozens of people have been killed, and more than 200 wounded, in a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town in Idlib Province in northwest Syria. The observatory reports at least 11 children under the age of eight were killed in the attack. Agence France-Presse is reporting that a few hours after the alleged gas attack a rocket hit a nearby hospital where victims were being treated.

The Islamic State group is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq and Syria.

ISIS reportedly used chemical weapons against Kurdish forces in Iraq on Wednesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The attack occurred in northern Iraq, where 60 Peshmerga fighters suffered injuries that appeared to be the result of chemical weapons.

Congressional investigators have documented at least 29 incidents in the last year in which the Assad regime in Syria has dropped chemical weapons on civilians or rebel fighters, exploiting a loophole in the Obama administration's deal with Damascus that left chlorine on the table as a weapon.

Syria missed another deadline Wednesday for destroying its chemical weapons amid a British report that Bashar Assad's regime is stockpiling the weaponry for use in case the country is partitioned.

Syria agreed last year to turn over its chemical weapons to the United Nations as Western powers were threatening to attack the country for using the weapons on neighborhoods where rebels against his regime were hiding out.

New rules make disposal safer but are proving troublesome to the dismantling of Syria's stockpiles.

International chemical weapons inspectors declared Syria's production facilities destroyed, but the task of disposing of large stockpiles remains.