An image grab taken from a video released by the
Syrian civil defence in Douma shows an unidentified volunteer holding an
oxygen mask over a child's face at a hospital following a reported
chemical attack on the rebel-held town on April 8, (AFP/HO/Syria Civil
Defense)
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday pointed toward Russia's
role in a suspected poison gas attack on the Syrian rebel-held town of
Douma, and said he would not rule out a military response.
Russia was supposed to guarantee the disposal of Syria's stockpile of
chemical weapons in September 2013, but President Bashar al-Assad's
regime is suspected of conducting repeated gas attacks since then.
"The first thing we have to look at is why are chemical weapons still
being used at all when Russia was the framework guarantor of removing
all the chemical weapons," Mattis said at the Pentagon in a meeting with
his Qatari counterpart.
"Working with our allies and our partners from NATO to Qatar and
elsewhere, we are going to address this issue ... I don't rule out
anything right now."
Syria has been accused multiple times of using toxic weapons
including sarin gas in the country's seven-year war, which has killed
more than 350,000 people.
Backed by Moscow, Assad has waged a seven-week assault on Ghouta that
has killed more than 1,700 civilians and left Islamist rebels cornered
in their last holdout of Douma, Ghouta's largest town.
Dozens of people died April 4, 2017 after regime warplanes struck the
rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Idlib, with medical sources
reporting patients suffering from symptoms consistent with a chemical
attack.
In retaliation for that attack, US President Donald Trump unleashed
strikes by Tomahawk missiles against the regime's Shayrat airbase
overnight April 6-7.
Agence France-Presse
thejakartapost.com
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