U.S. Prepares Military Options for Syria as 20K Assad Troops Advance on Aleppo
Obama finds Assad crossed 'red line' with use of chemical weapons against rebels
By Paul D. Shinkman
June 14, 2013 RSS Feed Print
(me, reduced to rubble)
This Wednesday, June 5, 2013, file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows Syrian soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, in Homs province, Syria.
This Wednesday, June 5, 2013, file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows Syrian soldiers loyal to President Bashar Assad in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, in Homs province, Syria.
The U.S. must now determine how it would arm the Syrian opposition movement after concluding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has crossed the "red line" by using chemical weapons against rebel forces in the war-torn state.
A new U.S. intelligence assessment shows the Assad regime has dispatched its cache of weaponized sarin gas on a limited basis against rebel fighters, top White House official Ben Rhodes told reporters Thursday afternoon. The opposition has not attained or used chemical weapons itself, Rhodes added, despite assertions from Assad to the contrary.
[READ: Hezbollah Win in Syria Dims Hopes for Peace Summit]
President Barack Obama is now considering military, diplomatic, financial or legal responses, said Rhodes. He stopped short of specifying the U.S. would give specific weapons to the opposition movement, opting instead for consulting the U.N. as well as G-8 nations leading up to the summit later in June.
Subject: Posted mostly for the single picture: U.S. Prepares Military Options for Syria 
Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:49 pm
