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White House accuses Syria of planning another chemical attack, warns it would 'pay a heavy price'

Pictures purportedly showing Bashar al-Assad making a rare trip to Hmeimim, Syria's largest air base, on June 27
Pictures purportedly showing Bashar al-Assad making a rare trip to Hmeimim, Syria's largest air base, on June 27

Britain will support any fresh retaliation by the US for the use of chemical weapons by Syria, Michael Fallon has said, after the White House revealed it had intelligence the regime was planning another attack. 

The US is thought to have observed preparations at Shayrat air base, where jets which carried out a deadly sarin gas strike in April took off from, and warned it would pay a "heavy price" if it went ahead with such an assault.  

Sir Michael, defence secretary, said that the UK backed the US administration of president Donald Trump when it mounted a Tomahawk missile strike against the regime following the attack on the rebel-held  town of Khan Sheikhoun, which left 74 people dead, and was prepared to do so again.  

#Syrian President Bashar al-#Assad visits the #Russian military base #Hmeimim and enters a Su-35 warplane. Via @AliHa_97pic.twitter.com/Fs2VJECVXn

— Ali Özkök (@A_Ozkok) 27 June 2017

"As always in war, the military action you use must be justified, it must be legal, it must proportionate, it must be necessary. In the last case it was," he said.

"If the Americans take similar action again, I want to be very clear - we will support it.”  

Sean Spicer, White House spokesman, said in a statement Monday night: “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.”  

A photograph purportedly showing Bashar al-Assad making a rare trip to Hmeimim, Syria's largest air base
A photograph purportedly showing Bashar al-Assad making a rare trip to Hmeimim, Syria's largest air base

The two-paragraph communique did not offer any evidence for the claims.   

Syria denied the claims on Tuesday, saying the statement foreshadowed a "diplomatic battle" between the countries.   

Russia, Assad’s main ally, rebuked what it called US “threats”.

In an interview with the Telegraph after the Khan Sheikhoun attack, a former Syrian chemical weapons chief claimed the regime failed to declare its entire stockpile to the UN’s watchdog and was likely still in possession of hundreds of tonnes.  

The USS Porter (DDG 78) fires a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea after the April chemical attack - Credit: PA
The USS Porter (DDG 78) fires a tomahawk land attack missile from the Mediterranean Sea after the April chemical attack Credit: PA

Syria handed over what it said was its entire chemical arsenal to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2014 under a deal negotiated by the US and Russia after hundreds of civilians were killed in a sarin gas attack in the outskirts of Damascus.  

The agreement averted US military strikes and the Barack Obama administration declared one of the world’s biggest chemical weapons stockpiles “100 per cent eliminated”.  

Assad insisted once again after April’s strike that the regime was not in possession of any chemical weapons.

While the motive of the White House in releasing the classified information is unclear, it may have been done with the hope such a public warning might deter the Syrian president from another chemical strike.  

Bashar al-Assad visits an injured soldier in Hama province in a photographed released by the Syrian presidency on June 27 - Credit: Sana via Reuters
Bashar al-Assad visits an injured soldier in Hama province in a photographed released by the Syrian presidency on June 27 Credit: Sana via Reuters

The statement appeared to take other agencies by surprise however.   

Centcom, the US Central Command, said they did not know what prompted the announcement, suggesting the White House had not coordinated with the national security agencies and departments before it was made on Monday evening, as is customary.  

But on Tuesday the White House insisted that all the departments involved were informed.

“All relevant agencies - including state, defence, CIA and the office for the director of national intelligence - were involved in the process from the beginning," a spokesman said.

"Anonymous leaks to the contrary are false.”

Jim Mattis, defence secretary, said on Tuesday the US-led coalition would not to be pulled into a war against the regime, saying it would keep a strict focus on fighting  Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

We won't fire "unless they are the enemy, unless they are ISIS," he said, using another acronym for the jihadist organisation. "We just refuse to get drawn into a fight there in the Syria civil war, we try to end that one through diplomatic engagement."

Under president Trump, the US has pursued a much more aggressive stance towards the Syrian government.  

A day after the Khan Shekhoun attack, the Trump administration acted on a red line set, and then ignored, by predecessor Mr Obama, targeting one of Syria's main air fields with 59 cruise missiles.   

The US has since bombed Iranian pro-government forces on the ground as they inched towards a US special forces garrison in southern Syria.   

And earlier this month, the coalition shot down a regime jet after it began firing on allied forces fighting Isil on the ground near Raqqa.   

A Syrian man receives treatment following a suspected toxic gas attack in April - Credit: AFP
A Syrian man receives treatment following a suspected toxic gas attack in April Credit: AFP

The US’s action, which have drawn Washington further into the conflict, set it on a collision course not only with the Syrian government but with its chief backers Russia and Iran.  

Russia’s defense ministry responded to the jet incident by threatening to target any aircraft flown by the US or its allies west of the Euphrates River valley.  

Such a threat can cause an unintended showdown as competing forces converge on Isil’s “capital” of Raqqa in northern Syria - a prize in Syria’s civil war. 

Syria: timeline of British involvement since 2013
Syria: timeline of British involvement since 2013