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How Syria Continued to Gas Its People as the World Looked On

(Reuters) Anthony Deutsch - A promise by Syria in 2013 to surrender its chemical weapons averted U.S. air strikes. Many diplomats and weapons inspectors now believe that promise was a ruse. They suspect that President Bashar al-Assad's regime, while appearing to cooperate with international inspectors, secretly maintained or developed a new chemical weapons capability. There have been dozens of chlorine attacks and at least one major sarin attack since 2013, causing more than 200 deaths and hundreds of injuries. International inspectors say there have been more than 100 reported incidents of chemical weapons being used in the past two years alone. Syria's declarations about the types and quantities of chemicals it possessed do not match evidence on the ground uncovered by inspectors. Syria told inspectors in 2014-2015 that it had used 15 tons of nerve gas and 70 tons of sulfur mustard for research. Inspectors believe those amounts are not "scientifically credible," as only a fraction would be needed for research. At least 2,000 chemical bomb shells, which Syria said it had converted to conventional weapons and either used or destroyed, are unaccounted for and may still be in the hands of Syria's military.
2017-08-18 00:00:00
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