U.S. says its warning appears to have averted Syrian chemical attack
22h ago | 01:28
Mattis: U.S. warning averted Syria chemical attack
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad appeared so far to have heeded a warning this week from Washington not to carry out a chemical weapons attack.
Russia, the Syrian government's main backer in the country's civil war, warned that it would respond proportionately if the United States took pre-emptive measures against Syrian forces to stop what the White House says could be a planned chemical attack.
The White House said on Monday it appeared the Syrian military was preparing to conduct a chemical weapons attack and said that Assad and his forces would "pay a heavy price" if it did so.
The warning was based on intelligence that indicated preparations for such a strike were under way at Syria's Shayrat airfield, U.S. officials said.
"It appears that they took the warning seriously," Mattis said. "They didn't do it," he told reporters flying with him to Brussels for a meeting of NATO defense ministers.
He offered no evidence other than the fact that an attack had not taken place.
Asked whether he believed Assad's forces had called off any such strike completely, Mattis said: "I think you better ask Assad about that."
Washington accused Syrian forces of using the Shayrat airfield for a chemical weapons attack in April. Syria denies this.
The intelligence that prompted the administration’s warning to Syria this week was "far from conclusive," said a U.S. official familiar with it. "It did not come close to saying that a chemical weapons attack was coming," the official said.
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