Pentagon: ‘Active preparations’ for Syrian chemical attack

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Pentagon said Tuesday it has detected “active preparations” by Syria for a chemical weapons attack, giving weight to a White House threat that the Syrian government would “pay a heavy price” if it carried out such an attack.

The U.S. accusation and ominous warning marked a further escalation of tensions in a country where the U.S. is using Syrian Arab and Kurdish proxy soldiers to combat the Islamic State group in its remaining strongholds, even as Russia and Iran work to support President Bashar Assad, who has gained the upper hand in a long civil war.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said the U.S. had seen “activity” at Shayrat airfield that “indicated active preparations for chemical weapons use.”

That is the same base from which the Syrian air force launched an attack in April that the U.S. and others said used lethal chemicals to kill civilians. Syria denied the charge.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the White House warning was meant for a wider audience.

“The goal is at this point not just to send Assad a message, but to send Russia and Iran a message,” Haley told a House panel. “That if this happens again, we are putting you on notice. My hope is that the president’s warning will certainly get Iran and Russia to take a second look, and I hope that it will caution Assad.”

Assad’s government and Russia dismissed the White House allegation. 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 April 4.