(Sipa via AP Images)
Following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the U.S. is working with several other countries in the Middle East to destroy his remaining chemical weapons in Syria.
According to Axios, U.S. intelligence is worried that terrorist groups will take advantage of the sudden fall of the Syrian army to capture dangerous weapons controlled by the now defunct Assad regime.
The former Syrian president who ruled over the country since 2000, fled the capital of Damascus on Saturday before rebels took the city. Assad is reportedly in Russia with his family.
“We will support international efforts to hold the Assad regime and its backers accountable for atrocities and abuses perpetrated against the Syrian people, including the use of chemical weapons,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Sunday.
The Assad regime infamously used chemical weapons against civilians in rebel territory in 2013. At the time, the war crime violated then-President Barack Obama’s “red line” that he vowed would trigger U.S. intervention.
Instead of invading Syria; however, the Obama administration at the time made a deal with the Kremlin to destroy Assad’s remaining chemical weapons. However, western intelligence officials believe the regime did not follow the deal and continued storing dangerous chemical weapons.
According to Axios, the Israeli air force over the last 48 hours have conducted air strikes against Syrian military bases and facilities that Assad reportedly used to store chemical weapons.
