Assad still has tons of chemical weapons: Israel

JERUSALEM — Israeli defense officials said Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad still has up to 3 tons of chemical weapons.

The assessment, based on Israeli intelligence, was revealed to reporters two weeks after a chemical attack in Syria killed at least 90 people. Israel, along with much of the international community, believes that Assad’s forces carried out the attack.

A senior military official told reporters that the Israeli intelligence estimates that Assad has “between 1 and 3 tons” of chemical weapons.

The assessment was confirmed by two other defense officials.

Assad has denied the allegations that he was behind the April 4 attack in the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhun in Syria’s southern Idlib province.

The United States and many other nations have called the attack a chemical weapons attack and accused the Syrian government of responsibility. In response, the United States fired nearly 60 missiles at a Syrian air base it suspected of being the launching pad for the attack.

Assad agreed in 2013 to declare and dispose of all his chemical weapons under UN supervision, but his forces have repeatedly been accused of using them since then.

A fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog, is investigating the incident and is expected to issue a report within two weeks.

Turkish and British tests also have concluded that sarin or a substance similar to the deadly nerve agent was used in the Idlib attack.

Earlier this week, Assad’s former chemical weapons research chief told Britain’s The Telegraph that Syria had “at least 2,000 tons” of chemical weapons before the war and only declared 1,300.

Former Brig. Gen. Zaher al-Sakat said the Syrian government still possessed hundreds of tons of chemical weapons.

Israel has largely stayed out of the civil war raging in its northern neighbor. But it has carried out a number of airstrikes against suspected arms shipments bound for Assad’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in retaliation for errant fire into the Golan Heights.