IDF official: Assad used chemical weapons

[Eugene]

Source: Jerusalem Post

IDF official: Assad used chemical weapons

By JPOST.COM STAFF 04/23/2013 10:37

Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons - likely nerves gas - on armed rebels in the civil war raging in his country, the head of the research division at military intelligence Brig.-Gen. Itay Brun told a defense conference at Tel Aviv University on Tuesday.

Brun told said the iNSS conference that there is increasing use of chemical weapons in Syria, and that the Syrian army is firing hundreds of rockets and missiles at civilians.

"There's a huge arsenal of chemical weapons in Syria. Our assessment is that the (Assad) regime has used and is using chemical weapons," Brun said.

Photos of victims showing foam coming out of their mouths and contracted pupils were signs deadly gas had been used, Brun said. "To the best of our understanding, there was use of lethal chemical weapons. Which chemical weapons? Probably Sarin."

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Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IDF-intelligence-research-head-Assad-used-sarin-gas-310773

[Eugene]

1. U.S. officials not persuaded Syria used chemical weapons

Source: Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-us-syria-chemical-weapons-20130423,0,7207777.story

U.S. officials not persuaded Syria used chemical weapons

By Paul Richter
April 23, 2013, 2:50 p.m.

BRUSSELS — U.S. officials said Tuesday that they are not persuaded that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime used chemical weapons against rebels, despite the strongest accusations to date from Israel.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who is in Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ministerial meeting, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not prepared to assert that chemical weapons had been used when they discussed a new Israeli intelligence assessment Tuesday.

“I think it’s fair for me to say that he was not in a position to confirm that in the conversation that I had,” Kerry said. “I don’t know what the facts are. I don’t think anybody knows what they are.”

Kerry’s comments came after Israel’s top military intelligence analyst accused Syria of using chemical weapons -- probably a sarin-based nerve agent -- in attacks March 19 near the cities of Aleppo and Damascus.

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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-us-syria-chemical-weapons-20130423,0,7207777.story