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 "We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical" in
the town of Kfar Zeita, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said,
referring to a rebel-held area.
"We are examining allegations that the government was responsible,"
she told a regular news briefing. "Obviously there needs to be an
investigation of what's happened here."
Syrian opposition activists reported that helicopters dropped
chlorine gas on Kfar Zeita on April 11 and 12. The U.S. ambassador
to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told ABC television's "This
Week" on April 13 that the attack was "unsubstantiated."
Psaki said chlorine was not one of the priority one or two chemicals
Syria declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW) under a Russian-U.S. agreement for the destruction of
Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.
Psaki said the United States was still trying to determine the
facts.
"We take all allegations of the use of chemicals in combat use very
seriously," she said." We'll work with the OPCW, who is obviously
overseeing the implementation, and determine if any violation
occurred."
A U.N. inquiry found in December that sarin gas had likely been used
in Jobar, on the outskirts of Damascus, in August and in several
other locations, including in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of
Ghouta, where hundreds of people were killed.
The Ghouta attack caused global outrage and a U.S. threat of
military strikes that was dropped after Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad pledged to destroy his chemical weapons arsenal.
The Syrian government failed to meet a February 5 deadline to move
all of its declared chemical substances and precursors, some 1,300
metric tons, out of the country. It has since agreed to remove the
weapons by late April.
"WAR CRIMES"
Some U.S. lawmakers who have expressed deep skepticism about the
chemical weapons agreement said the report, if verified, backed
their long-standing call for President Barack Obama's administration
to provide more support for the Syrian rebels.
"The Assad regime continues to carry out war crimes in its slaughter
of innocent men, women, and children. Its breach of the chemical
weapons agreement should surprise no one, and unless the Obama
administration is willing to force a price for such behavior, we
should only expect more atrocities to come," Republican U.S. Senator
John McCain of Arizona, a frequent critic of Obama's foreign policy,
said in a statement.
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Rebel activists posted photographs and video they said showed an
improvised chlorine bomb to back up their claims about Kfar Zeita.
The government accused rebels of using the chemical.
Asked about the government charge, Psaki said:
"We're examining allegations. We're obviously looking at the facts
on the ground. We shouldn't forget the context of what the regime
has been capable of in the past."
Psaki rejected presidential elections announced by Syria on Monday
as "a parody of democracy" with no credibility.
"Staging elections under current conditions, including the effective
disenfranchisement of millions of Syrians, neither addresses the
aspirations of the Syrian people, nor moves the country any closer
to a negotiated political solution," she said.
Syria announced a presidential election for June 3, preparing the
ground for Assad to defy widespread opposition and extend his grip
on power, days after he said the civil war was turning in his favor.
Last week, opposition activists accused Assad's forces of a new
poison gas attack in the Syrian capital and posted footage of four
men being treated by medics.
They said this chemical attack, the fourth the opposition has
reported this month, was in the Harasta neighborhood of Damascus.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Doina Chiacu; additional
reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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