Israeli official: Syria's Assad used chemical arms

Israeli official: Syria’s Assad used chemical arms

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - A senior Israeli military intelligence official said today that Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons last month in his battle against insurgent groups. It was the first time that Israel has accused the embattled Syrian leader of using his stockpile of nonconventional weapons. Israel’s assessment, based on visual evidence of alleged attacks, could raise pressure on the U.S. and other Western countries to intervene in the Syrian conflict. Britain and France recently announced that they had evidence that Assad’s government had used chemical weapons. Although the U.S. says it has not been able to verify these claims, President Barack Obama has warned that the introduction of chemical weapons by Assad would be a “game changer.”