US warns Syria on chemical attack
washington — The Pentagon on Tuesday said it detected “active preparations” by Syria for a chemical weapons attack, giving weight to a White House statement hours earlier that the Syrian government would “pay a heavy price” if it carried out such an attack.
The US accusation and ominous warning marked a further escalation of tensions in a country where the US is using Syria Arab and Kurdish proxy soldiers to combat the Daesh group in its remaining strongholds, even as Russia and Iran work to prop up President Bashar Assad, who has gained the upper hand in a long civil war.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said the US had seen “activity” at Shayrat airfield that “indicated active preparations for chemical weapons use.” That is the same base from which the Syria air force launched an attack in April that the US and others said used lethal chemicals to kill civilians. Syria denied the charge.
Assad’s government and Russia dismissed the White House allegation that Damascus was preparing a new chemical weapons attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “such threats to Syria’s legitimate leaders are unacceptable.” Russia is Assad’s key backer and sided with him when he denied responsibility for a chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Idlib province on April 4.
The US responded to that attack by hitting the airfield with dozens of cruise missiles. In the days following, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis cautioned that the US was prepared to take further action if Syria repeated such chemical weapons use.
A Monday evening statement by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the United States had “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.” —