US/World News

Israeli official: Syria again using deadly nerve gas

(JNS.org) Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has used deadly sarin nerve gas for the first time since 2013, when Syria agreed to stop using chemical weapons, a senior Israeli official told the British newspaper The Telegraph. Assad’s regime used sarin and VX gas to kill 1,400 civilians in rebel territories of Damascus on Aug. 21, 2013. Assad subsequently agreed to surrender Syria’s chemical arsenal in an agreement brokered by the United States and Russia. The Israeli official quoted by The Telegraph, however, believes that Syria has hidden a portion of its sarin — an odorless and invisible gas — despite U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s declaration that America and Russia “got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out” of Syria. “They deceived and they still have it (sarin gas),” the anonymous Israeli official said. “Recently, they have decided to use it again. Once a taboo is broken, it becomes a standard weapon that you use.” In early May, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had reported that Syria’s air force dropped sarin-filled bombs in a late-April strike against the Islamic State. The Israeli official interviewed by The Telegraph confirmed that Syria used sarin gas in that operation about three weeks ago.

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