SyriaU.S. confirms: Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian rebels, civilians

The Obama administration has informed Congress this afternoon that the U.S. intelligence community has determined that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on several occasions against both rebel forces and Syrian civilians.

The U.S. intelligence community says these attacks, each using small quantities of sarin gas, have killed about 150 Syrians.

The New York Times reports that according to an internal memorandum circulating inside the government on Thursday, the “intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.”

The intelligence services involved in the determination say their conclusions are based on evidence that includes reporting on planning by the regime for the use of chemical weapons, accounts of specific attacks, and descriptions of physiological symptoms.

The draft statement notes there is no reason to believe the rebels have access to chemical weapons.

“We believe that the Assad regime maintains control of these weapons, and has taken steps to secure these weapons from theft or attack,” it states. “We have no reliable, corroborated reported indication that the opposition has acquired or used chemical weapons.”

According to a CIA report, which was described to the Times by an American official who declined to be identified, the United States has acquired blood, urine, and hair samples from two Syrian rebels — one dead, and one wounded — who were involved in a firefight with Syrian government forces in mid-March near the town of Utubya, northeast of Damascus.

The samples showed that the rebels were exposed to sarin and support the conclusion that the regime has used the weapon.

The intelligence services of the United Kingdom and France have reached similar conclusions earlier this month.

Independent labs in the United Kingdom and France, after examining bodily fluids from Syrian victims, have said these fluids prove beyond doubt that sarin gas was used.

USA Today reports that the White House announced late Thursday afternoon that high-level administration officials were going to hold previously unscheduled calls with reporters for about 17:00 Thursday to discuss the findings about Syria and what the administration intends to do in response.

Earlier on Thursday, Politico reported that former President Bill Clinton said he agreed with Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) that Obama should be more forceful in supporting Syrian rebels who are fighting the government forces of President Bashar Assad.

“Some people say, ‘Okay, see what a big mess it is? Stay out!’ I think that’s a big mistake,” Clinton said during a Tuesday event on behalf of the McCain Institute for International Leadership in New York City.

“I agree with you about this,” Clinton told McCain. “Sometimes it’s just best to get caught trying, as long as you don’t over-commit — like, as long as you don’t make an improvident commitment.”

The Times reports that earlier this week, during a broad evaluation of U.S. Syria policy, senior State Department officials have been pushing for an aggressive military response to the recent battlefield gains by the Assad government, and that these officials’ position has only been strengthened by the intelligence community’s determination about chemical weapons. These officials have advocated measures such as airstrikes to hit the primary landing strips in Syria that the government uses to launch the chemical weapons attacks, ferry troops around the country, and receive shipments of matériel from Iran.

White House officials, however, remain wary, and one American official told the Times that a meeting on Wednesday of the president’s senior advisers yielded no firm decisions about how to proceed.