Syria Chemical Attack: White House Warns Against an Alleged Followup to Earlier Chemical Weapons Assault
Only two months after the nerve agent Sarin was allegedly dropped on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun and subsequently killed more than 80 people, the White House has issued a warning about the possibility of Syria's government preparing yet another deadly chemical weapons attack.
According to a non-governmental source cited by The Associated Press, the White House claimed to have received intelligence that Syrian government forces at Shayrat airfield, the same airfield that the United States struck back in April, were seen mixing precursor chemicals that point to a possible repeat of the Sarin attack in either the eastern or southern part of the country.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told Reuters by phone on Tuesday, June 27, that the alleged active Syrian preparations involved a "specific aircraft in a specific hangar" that have both been previously associated with chemical weapons use.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Additionally, Davis said that the alleged activity was dated back to "the past day or two."
The White House has previously released a statement via spokesman Sean Spicer on Monday night, June 26, saying, "The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children."
Spicer further added that should Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launch yet another chemical weapons attack aimed at mass murder, "he and his military will pay a heavy price."
After an airstrike was launched on April 4 on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun located in Idlib province, images and videos emerged online of Syrian civilians, not excluding children, struggling to breathe and foaming from their mouths in what looked to be a nerve agent poisoning. The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) collected samples and later identified this said agent to be Sarin or a Sarin-like substance.
President Assad has previously claimed that this incident was "fabricated," while its close ally, Russia, said that the Sarin-exposure was due an air strike hitting a rebel depot full of chemical munitions, thus releasing toxic agents into the air.
This claim has since been denied by rebel factions as well as by the Western powers backing them up.
The Syrian government has also denied allegations that they are currently preparing a chemical attack.
