SYRIA — (AP) The United States says if a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria is what it appears to be, it is “clearly a war crime.”
An official says both the United States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are currently gathering information about the attack.
The attack comes as the U.S. has been softening its stance on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s future and leaving open the possibility the U.S. could cooperate with Assad’s government on fighting the Islamic State group. But the U.S. official says that’s “highly unlikely.” He says the U.S. isn’t currently focused on that possibility.
He says the Syrian government’s behavior would have to change before the U.S. would seriously consider that step.
Spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday’s attack in the Syrian province of Idlib is “reprehensible and cannot be ignored by the civilized world.”
But Spicer says the actions of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government are a consequence of the Obama administration’s “weakness and irresolution” in addressing the Syrian civil war.
Spicer says that President Barack Obama said he would draw a “red line” at chemical attacks, “then did nothing.”
Spicer would not say whether the White House believes Russia played a role in the attack, saying President Donald Trump has been briefed.
He says Trump is “extremely alarmed” by this “intolerable act.”
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Syria’s military has denied using chemical weapons against civilians, saying it is too “honorable” to carry out such “heinous” crimes.
The statement from the Armed Forces and Military General Command Tuesday came hours after opposition activists said a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held northern town killed dozens of people.
Footage from Khan Sheikhoun showed dozens of civilians, including many children, choking and convulsing on the ground, some foaming at the mouth. Syrian activists and rescuers said at least 58 people were killed in the attack.
The Syrian military blamed any use of chemical weapons on the opposition and those who support them. It says the rebels fabricate accusations of chemical attacks to divert attention from their battlefield failures.
A doctor in northern Syria’s Idlib province says he believes the suspected chemical attack is the worst the country has witnessed since 2013, when hundreds were killed in a Damascus suburb.
Dr. AbdulHai Tennari, a pulmonologist who treated dozens of patients in the Tuesday attack, said it appeared to be more serious than a chlorine attack. His hometown Idlib has been the scene a number of chlorine attacks. Tennari says doctors are struggling to deal with the victims, amid a shortage of facilities and medical supplies, and the antidote used to save patients is in short supply.
Tennari compared Tuesday’s attack that killed dozens to the 2013 one in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta that killed hundreds. A Russian-negotiated deal followed, forcing the Syrian government to destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons and precursor chemicals
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