‘Syria heeded US chemical attack warning’
Syria’s government appears to have taken a US warning not to launch a chemical weapons attack seriously, US Defence Secretary James Mattis says.
The White House said similar activities had been seen at an airbase before the nerve agent Sarin was allegedly dropped on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun in April.
President Bashar al-Assad’s military would “pay a very heavy price” if an attack took place, it warned. Damascus dismissed the allegation, but General Mattis noted: “They didn’t do it.” Mr Assad has said the incident in Khan Sheikhoun, which activists say killed more than 80 people and prompted a retaliatory US missile strike, was a “fabrication”.
He has insisted that his forces destroyed their entire chemical arsenal under a deal brokered by the US and Russia after a Sarin attack outside Damascus in 2013.
Pentagon spokesperson Captain Jeff Davis said on Tuesday that the US had recently observed activity at Shayrat airbase, about 25km (15 miles) south-east of the city of Homs, which “indicated preparations for possible use of chemical weapons”.
The activity involved “specific aircraft in a special hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical weapons use”, he added.
The White House warned Mr Assad on Monday that if he “conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price”.
“It appears that they took the warning seriously,” General Mattis told journalists on a flight to Brussels on Wednesday. They didn’t do it.”
BBC