Syria warned off chemical weapon use

Assad will ‘pay a heavy price’: US

WASHINGTON: The White House warned Syrian President Bashar alAssad yesterday that he and his military would ‘‘pay a heavy price’’ if it conducted a chemical weapons attack and said the United States had reason to believe such preparations were under way.

The White House said in a statement the preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an April 4 chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians and prompted US President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.

‘‘The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children,’’ White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

‘‘If . . . Mr Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price,’’ he said.

White House officials did not respond to requests for comment on potential US plans or the intelligence that prompted the statement about Syria’s preparations for an attack.

Trump ordered the strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria in April in reaction to what Washington said was a poison gas attack by Assad’s government that killed 87 people in rebelheld territory. Syria denied it carried out the attack.

The strike was the toughest direct US action yet in Syria’s sixyearold civil war, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Assad’s two main military backers.

US and allied intelligence officers had for some time identified several sites where they suspected the Assad Government may have been hiding newlymade chemical weapons from inspectors, said one US official familiar with the intelligence.

The White House warning, the official said, was based on new reports of what was described as abnormal activity that might be associated with preparations for a chemical attack.

Although the intelligence was not considered conclusive, the Administration quickly decided to issue the public warning to the Assad regime in an attempt to deter such a strike, said the official, who declined to discuss the issue further.

At the time of the April strike, US officials called the intervention a ‘‘oneoff’’ intended to deter future chemical weapons attacks and not an expansion of the US role in the Syrian war.

The United States has taken a series of actions over the past three months demonstrating its willingness to carry out strikes, mostly in selfdefence, against Syrian Government forces and their backers, including Iran.

Washington has repeatedly struck Iranianbacked militia and even shot down a drone threatening USled coalition forces since the April military strike. The US military also shot down a Syrian jet this month.

Trump has also ordered steppedup military operations against Islamic State and delegated more authority to his generals. — Reuters