US weighing attacks for Syrian regime chem. weapons use

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON

Washington is considering new attacks against Syria because of the regime’s use of chemical weapons there, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) said Tuesday.

"As you saw the president's response to the attack last year, this is something that is under serious discussion as we speak, but again, something that needs to be discussed in a classified session," Dan Coats told a Senate committee.

Coats was referring to the U.S. launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles on a military airbase in Shayrat, Syria, that American officials believed was used to carry out a deadly chemical attack.

The missiles were fired from two U.S. destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and destroyed aircraft, shelters and defense systems, according to the Pentagon.

Asked about chlorine gas being used daily by the regime as a weapon of mass destruction, Coats said the U.S. considers the chemical weapon a weapon of mass destruction, even more so than sarin gas which has been reportedly been used by Bashar al-Assad against civilians.