Hagel: US military stands ready to strike Syria

Hagel: US military stands ready to strike Syria

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military stands ready to strike Syria at once if President Barack Obama gives the order, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today as the United States prepared to formally declare that chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian civil war. U.S. officials said the growing intelligence pointed strongly toward Bashar Assad’s government as the culprit - a claim Assad called “preposterous.”