Intel: US endorses watchdog report blaming Syria for chemical attack

The report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons found "reasonable grounds" to believe that the Syrian air force dropped chlorine on a rebel-held town in northwestern Syria in 2018.
January 2018 Saraqib attack
Trucks loaded with sacks of potatoes stand abandoned on Jan. 29, 2018, after their windows were blasted from their frames following airstrikes by government forces that hit the vegetable market of the town of Saraqib in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. Syrian forces are suspected of using chemical weapons during an attack on the town six days later. At the time, Syrian troops had been advancing on Idlib as part of a fierce offensive launched in late December 2017with Russian backing. - OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images
Elizabeth Hagedorn
Elizabeth Hagedorn
@ElizHagedorn

The United States has endorsed a global chemical weapons watchdog's recent investigation into Syria, which concluded this week that government forces likely used chlorine gas during an attack on a residential area in 2018. 

“This latest finding should come as a surprise to no one,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement Wednesday. “The regime has consistently responded with death and destruction to calls by the Syrian people for reform and change. These well-documented atrocities include the use of chemical weapons.”

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