WarSclerotic

Syria mixes chemical weapons for potential use in bombs, US source says | Fox News.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly meet with Russia’s top diplomat Thursday to discuss the crisis in Syria, a day after sources confirmed to Fox News Syria’s military has mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs in preparation for possible use on President Assad’s own people.

The Associated Press reports the surprise meeting between Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and mediator Lakhdar Brahimi in Dublin confirms talk of an easing of some of the acrimony that’s raged between Moscow and Washington over how to handle Syria’s violence and suggests a compromise between the two may be attainable. A senior U.S. official told Fox News Wednesday that Syrian forces had loaded bombs with components of sarin gas, a deadly nerve gas. They have 60 days to use these bombs until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed. NBC News, which first reported this latest escalation in the Syrian civil war, cited sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons against civilians pending orders from Assad. The sarin could be delivered in several ways but is believed to have been placed in fracturable canisters that can be dropped from planes, according to a senior US military source. “We think they have it in aerosol form,” the source told Fox News. The United States has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict. The U.S. military is making contingency plans should Assad leave suddenly. Various Middle Eastern countries are trying to find a place to give Assad asylum, according to Middle Eastern diplomatic sources. In Brussels earlier Wednesday, Clinton reiterated concerns that “an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons” or lose control of them to militant groups. She also said NATO’s decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey’s southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies. The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said. A senior Damascus official is accusing the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Thursday accused the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. He said that any such intervention would be “catastrophic.” Mekdad says Syria would never use chemical weapons — even if it had them — against its own people, calling it “suicide.” He spoke in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Manar TV. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted Wednesday in the Turkish newspaper Sabah as saying that Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them long-range. Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria’s civil war battled Wednesday in the streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said. The bloodshed is a sign of just how vulnerable Lebanon is to getting sucked into the Syrian crisis. The countries share a porous border and a complex web of political and sectarian ties that is easily enflamed. The Lebanese men killed in Syria were Sunni Muslims, like the majority of rebels trying to overthrow Assad’s regime. Assad and much of his inner circle belong to the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The fighting in Lebanon comes at a time of deep uncertainty in Syria, with rebels battling government troops near Assad’s seat of power in Damascus. Syria has been careful not to confirm it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people. But as the regime wobbles, there are fears the crisis will keep spiraling outside its borders. Fighting has spilled over into Turkey, Jordan and Israel since the uprising began more than 20 months ago, but Lebanon is particularly susceptible. Seventeen times bigger than Lebanon and four times more populous, Syria has long had powerful allies there, including the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. For much of the past 30 years, Lebanese have lived under Syrian military and political domination. Meanwhile, the unrest inside Syria shows no sign of slowing down. The uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and later escalated into a civil war that the opposition says has killed more than 40,000 people. Besides the violence roiling the capital, Damascus, there was growing speculation about the fate of a top Syrian spokesman who has become a prominent face of the regime. Lebanese security officials have said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi flew Monday from Beirut to London. But it was not clear whether Makdissi had defected, quit his post or been forced out. Syria has had no official comment on Makdissi, who has defended the regime’s crackdown on dissent. Fox News’ Justin Fishel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Israel ‘Can Deal With Syrian Chemical Threat’ – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Patriot Missile Battery

IDF/Flash 90

As the Syria raises the stakes over its chemical weapons, an Israeli military intelligence expert says measures are being taken to minimize the threat.

Lt. Col. (res.) Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar Ilan University and a 25-year veteran of military intelligence says actions are quietly being taken to deal with the potential threat posed by Syria’s chemical arsenal.

The U.S. said earlier this week that its intelligence had detected Syrian technicians had mixed precursor chemicals for the deadly nerve gas called sarin. The process took place at two storage sites, according to at least one report, and sources said the chemical may have been loaded into aerial bombs or artillery shells.

If the nerve gas is loaded into aerial bombs, and if the bombs make it on to planes and are fired, what happens if they are intercepted and explode in mid-air either by the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, or by Patriot missiles?

Kedar told Arutz Sheva in an exclusive interview Thursday afternoon that if the gas is in an aerial bomb, it is “very easy to deal with. The Air Force knows very well how to deal with such things. An aerial bomb is a traditional weapon,” he said, even when it is carrying a payload of sarin. “Missiles are much faster,” he added, “but still they too can be dealt with.”

The aerial chemical weapons threat, however, is one reason Turkey has turned to NATO for assistance, Kedar said. “This is why Turkey is deploying Patriots along the border with Syria,” he pointed out.

If an aerial bomb bearing a payload of sarin explodes in mid-air, Kedar said, “it is much less dangerous than if it blows up on your head. Sarin needs to be within a certain range, and at a certain concentration, in order to be effective.”

Among other effects, sarin causes burns and blindness.

Kedar added that although the U.S.-based NBC News network had reported the nerve gas had been loaded into the bombs, “I do believe that military intelligence organizations know more about what is going on, and take measures to secure things in an appropriate manner.”

The intelligence veteran said that behind the scenes, “things are being done” and that it is “good that professional people are dealing with this. They have all the information and are taking decisions in accordance with the changing situation.”

In response to a fierce warning from the American government, Syria’s foreign ministry issued a statement on Monday saying it would not use such weapons against its own people. It was the second statement of its kind to be made in less than six months; Syria had broadcast a similar assurance in July.

However, by nightfall, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Jihad al-Makdissi, had fled the country, allegedly first to Beirut and from there to London, where the rest of his family allegedly had preceded him. According to Beirut-based Al-Manar television, linked to the Iranian-backed Hizbullah terrorist organization, Makdissi had been sacked by President Bashar al-Assad for making inaccurate statements that implied – or revealed – the presence of chemical weapons in Syria in the first place.

Egypt military warns demonstrators, orders them to evacuate palace area.

Thursday, 06 December 2012

Soldiers urged both sides to stop and helped calm the flare-up. Violence outside the palace that erupted on Wednesday had mostly abated by the early hours of Thursday. (Reuters)

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Egypt’s Republican Guard, which deployed around the presidential palace on Thursday, said demonstrators must evacuate the area by 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), Reuters reported the presidency saying in a statement.

Supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi hurled rocks at each other on Thursday outside the presidential palace, over the heads of soldiers deployed there to protect the building, a Reuters witness said.

Soldiers urged both sides to stop and helped calm the flare-up. Violence outside the palace that erupted on Wednesday had mostly abated by the early hours of Thursday.

At least three tanks deployed outside the Egyptian presidential palace on Thursday in a street where supporters and opponents of Mursi had been clashing into the early hours of the morning, a Reuters witness said.

At least two armored troop carriers were also seen in the area outside the palace. The violence that had stretched from Wednesday afternoon into the early hours of Thursday had abated and streets were calm.

Meanwhile, Mursi met the army chief and cabinet ministers on Thursday to discuss how to stabilize the nation after clashes between his supporters and opponents outside the presidential palace, the presidency said in a statement.

Mursi met General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is the head of the military and defense minister, as well as the prime minister, interior and justice ministers, and others.

They discussed “means to deal with the situation on different political, security and legal levels to stabilize Egypt and protect the gains of the revolution,” according to the statement issued on Mursi’s official website.

Five demonstrators died overnight Thursday in the worst violence since Mursi became Egypt’s first Islamist president in June.

The five were killed by gunfire or buckshot as nearly 350 others were wounded when allies and foes of Mursi clashed around the presidential palace in Cairo, state news agency MENA said.

They started off by lobbing fire bombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering standoff over the president’s expanded powers and a new constitution turned violent.

Mursi drew the wrath of the opposition and many in the magistrate by assuming exceptional powers under a November 22 decree.

Bloodied protesters were seen carried away as gunshots rang out and the rivals torched cars and set off fire crackers near the presidential palace, where opponents of Mursi had set up tents before his supporters drove them away.

Riot police were eventually sent in to break up the violence, but clashes still took place in side streets near the palace in the upscale Cairo neighbourhood of Heliopolis.

In the early hours of Thursday gunshots rang out intermittently and sporadic violence continued, an AFP correspondent said.

Many of the opposition had left and a few hundred protesters remained outside the palace.

The violence spread beyond the capital, with protesters torching the offices of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood in the Mediterranean port city of Ismailiya and in Suez, witnesses said.

“It’s a civil war that will burn all of us,” said Ahmed Fahmy, 27, as the clashes raged behind him.

“They (Islamists) attacked us, broke up our tents, and I was beaten up,” said Eman Ahmed, 47. “They accused us of being traitors.”

Activists among the Islamist marchers harassed television news crews, trying to prevent them from working, AFP reporters said.

Wael Ali, a 40-year-old Mursi supporter with a long beard, said: “I’m here to defend democracy. The president was elected by the ballot box.”

At the heart of the dispute is a decree by Mursi in which he gave himself sweeping powers, and the hasty subsequent adoption of a draft constitution in a process boycotted by liberals and Christians.

But despite the protests prompted by the decree two weeks ago, Vice President Mahmud Mekki said a referendum on the charter “will go ahead on time” as planned on December 15.

The opposition would be allowed to put any objections they have to articles of the draft constitution in writing, to be discussed by a parliament yet to be elected.

Exclusive: Iran shipping signals conceal Syria ship movements | Reuters.

(Reuters) – Iranian oil tankers are sending incorrect satellite signals that confuse global tracking systems and appear to conceal voyages made by other ships to Syria, which, like Iran, is subject to international sanctions.

The two countries are close allies and have helped each other deal with shortages by swapping badly needed fuels such as gasoline for diesel.

Sanctions imposed on Iran to hamper its nuclear program have blocked sales of its oil to the West and made it increasingly difficult for Iran’s fleet to obtain insurance and financing for deals with Asian buyers in China, India and South Korea.

Western sanctions have also isolated Syria, preventing it from exporting oil, while blocking fuel and weapons imports.

Iranian state tanker company NITC has already changed many tanker names as part of its response to sanctions, though shipping experts say such a tactic would not confuse anyone in the business about a vessel’s whereabouts.

Now tanker tracking data monitored by Reuters and shipping specialists have highlighted a more subtle twist.

Large vessels must transmit their identity and location to other ships and coastal authorities using an automatic satellite communication system, but in the last month Iranian vessels sailing in Asian seas have sent signals that took over the identity of other vessels, so the same ship appeared to be in two places at once.

“It is of course possible to manipulate or falsify information in these messages,” said Richard Hurley, a senior analyst at IHS Fairplay, a maritime intelligence publisher.

At least three Iranian oil tankers are transmitting such false signals, effectively taking over the identity of Syrian-owned vessels travelling between Syria, Libya and Turkey.

All the vessels in question were registered in Tanzania.

“In the past months we witness a recurring pattern of vessels sailing the Tanzanian flag that transmit the same MMSI number (a satellite signal that provides information on a ship’s identity and position),” said Windward, a firm that provides maritime analytics technology.

“This way, if one of the two vessels is engaged in legitimate maritime activities, it might be used as a ‘cloaking’ for the other vessel and its activities.”

Iranian oil tanker Millionaire sent messages that doubled over a voyage made by a Syrian-owned ship, the Lady Rasha.

In a separate instance, the satellite tracks of Iranian oil tanker Pioneer were mixed up with a Tanzania-flagged cargo ship called the Talavera, recently renamed Chief Ahmed, and travelling from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea.

Despite all the paired vessels appearing to be registered under Tanzanian flags, officials in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar denied holding any information on the vessels.

They have directed queries to a shipping agency in Dubai, Philtex Corporation, which they say registered some Iranian ships under the Tanzanian flag without their knowledge.

Philtex confirmed it had registered the Syrian-owned Lady Rasha, but could not provide details on the Iranian tankers in question.

MYSTERY CRATES

Satellite signals on position, course and speed are typically sent from onboard navigation systems with no human input. Others, like arrival time, are input by crew.

Peter Blackhurst, head of maritime security at Inmarsat, which provides satellite communication services, said a ship could get its Global Positioning System (GPS) to give false data, including pretending to be another vessel.

“That equipment is programmable one way or another,” he said, adding that he had come across data manipulation by ships involved in illegal fishing or waste dumping.

Syrian-owned Lady Rasha’s satellite track first mixed up with the Iranian-owned oil tanker Millionaire on October 20, when the tanker began transmitting the same signal as the cargo ship.

Lady Rasha was then docked in Benghazi, Libya. The Millionaire tanker was sailing in the Indian Ocean.

To do this, the Millionaire changed its MMSI, a message that contains both location and identity data, from 572450210 to match the Lady Rasha’s number: 677030700.

Although the Lady Rasha sent signals during its journey across the eastern Mediterranean, its identity was overwritten by the Iranian ship, which was also sending position signals of its own from the Indian Ocean.

As a result, the Millionaire appears to be undertaking two parallel journeys thousands of miles apart, while the Lady Rasha’s track is not plotted.

On one track the Millionaire can been seen sailing the Lady Rasha’s course in the Mediterranean, and on the other it is powering though the Indian Ocean from east Asia back to Iran.

However, another piece of identification data, the IMO, can’t be changed, and that, too, is sent with every message on position, which enabled vessel-tracking experts to detect that signals came from two different ships.

A day after the Millionaire’s MMSI changed, the Lady Rasha left Libya and arrived in Syria on October 26, the Tartous port authority said, where it unloaded cattle and crates, the contents of which the Syrian port authority said were not known.

The Lady Rasha is owned by ISM Group, according to the Syrian port authority at Tartous, a firm that came under the spotlight after Lebanon seized one of its ships with three containers filled with weapons earlier this year, including explosives with labels indicating their origin as Libya.

The port authority at Tartous confirmed the Lady Rasha had called there and the Millionaire had not, but a senior NITC official denied the Iranian tanker had sent out signals that belonged to another ship.

“It is not possible practically to do this,” the NITC official said, declining further comment.

The Lady Rasha’s owners could not be reached for comment, while the agency that registered the vessel with Tanzania said it was unaware of the duplicate signals.

“We have no idea and we cannot justify why they are emitting the same satellite signals,” said Jocelyn Acosta, director of operations at registering agency Philtex Corporation.

Acosta said Philtex cooperated with requests made by United States government agencies and others to identify a ship’s owner and had deregistered a number of vessels accordingly.

TANZANIA UNDER SCRUTINY

In a similar example of Tanzania-registered ships confusing satellite systems, the track left by the cargo ship Talavera became mixed up with NITC oil tanker Pioneer.

The Talavera changed its name to Chief Ahmed in November around the time a Hamas military commander called Ahmed Al-Jaabari was assassinated by Israel.

In this case tracking systems showed Pioneer undertaking two parallel journeys in late October thousands of miles apart.

On one track, the tanker appeared to sail from the Suez Canal to the Red Sea – stopping off in Jordan and Yemen on its way to Iran – while at the same time travelling through the South China Sea to the Chinese port of Ningbo.

“Using another MMSI other than your own can only be done among the same flag members and has to be done by one of the workers in the flag offices,” said a Western diplomatic source, who monitors efforts to track Iranian tankers.

All ships registered in mainland Tanzania or Zanzibar fly the Tanzanian flag, and officials in both offices said they were unaware of any Iranian vessels on their register.

Responding to diplomatic pressure by the United States and European Union to drop all Iranian tankers from their registries, Tanzania’s foreign minister issued a statement denying Iran’s vessels had been legitimately registered.

“All the 36 Iranian ships were de-registered and hence stopped using our national flag. We have not registered any new ships as claimed,” said Bernard Membe, adding that Tanzania had asked the US and EU to help investigate the Dubai-based agency that had registered the vessels.

“If we establish that this (Iranian tankers have been registered) has happened we will cancel the registrations.”

Vessels without a flag cannot be insured, dock in most ports or use the vital Suez Canal shortcut between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.

Manipulating or turning off satellite tracking devices is not necessarily an indication that a vessel is trying to conceal illegal activity, according to International Maritime Bureau director Pottengal Mukundan.

“Vessels sometimes shut their AIS when they are going into pirate waters for example, as they wouldn’t want anyone to pick up their signal because they could then be targeted by pirates,” he said.

Straightforward breaks in satellite signals have also been seen in the east Mediterranean.

An Iranian tanker that loaded a cargo of gasoline in Syria transmitted a message on tracking systems that it was heading for Libya in early November.

Satellite tracking showed the ship, the Alvan, sailed west towards Libya before dropping off the radar for at least 24 hours.

When it began to transmit again, it was sailing back in the opposite direction, east towards the Suez Canal, eventually returning to Iran in mid November.

Libyan authorities say they have not engaged in any oil trade with Iran, and no Iranian tankers had passed through Libyan ports.

“I assure you we never received any Iranian vessels in our oil terminals to load or unload,” said Ahmed Shawki, the head of marketing at Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC).

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul, Amena Bakr and Fumbuka Ng’wanakilala; Editing by Will Waterman)

US: Sarin bombs ready for Assad’s “go” order. Israel’s odd silence.

DEBKAfile Special Report December 6, 2012, 8:13 AM (GMT+02:00)

The USS Eisenhower in a lightning storm

American officials said Wednesday, Dec. 4, that they believed bombs had been made ready with sarin gas, but not yet loaded onto fighter planes and Assad had not issued the “go” order.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned President Assad once again that he would be crossing “a red line” if he used nerve gas against the country’s rebels. But “there’s little the outside world can do to stop it.”
In answer to US allegations, Syrian spokesmen reiterated that their government would not use chemical weapons against its own people.

This statement leaves wide open the possible use of lethal gas against the countries supporting the Syrian rebels, such as Turkey and Jordan. And indeed, the Assad regime has in the past referred to “external enemies” as possible targets of chemical warfare.

This locution undoubtedly covers Israel. Yet against the flood of information and warnings coming from the United States, Israel is strangely silent and its media are officially discouraged from tracking the Syrian chemical weapons menace.

Surprise was voiced in some Israeli defense and military quarters, when the prime minister, the defense minister and other key ministers traveled to Europe Wednesday for visits to Prague and Berlin, at a time when Israel’s northern border with Syria might be targeted for a chemical attack.
Although it was only a 48-hour absence – they return Friday – Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are holding to an outward attitude of coolly controling the situation, in contrast to the Turkish government which has prepared itself for possible attack – and not only with defensive measures. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu remarked Wednesday that the Syrian regime has 700 missiles whose location, storage method and holders are no secret to Ankara. This was a veiled threat to destroy them.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said nothing more than the routine: “We are watching the Syrian chemical weapons with concern.”
debkafile reported Wednesday:

The USS Eisenhower Strike Group transited the Suez Canal from the Persian Gulf Saturday, Dec. 1, sailing up to the Syrian coast Tuesday in a heavy storm, with 8 fighter bomber squadrons of Air Wing Seven on its decks and 8,000 sailors, airmen and Marines.
The USS Eisenhower group joins the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group which carries 2,500 Marines.

Facing Syria now are 10,000 US fighting men, 70 fighter-bombers and at least 17 warships, including the three Iwo Jima amphibious craft, a guided missile cruiser and 10 destroyers and frigates.
Four of these vessels are armed with Aegis missile interceptors.
This mighty US armada brings immense pressure to bear on the beleaguered Assad regime after it survied an almost two-year buffeting by an armed uprising. Its presence indicates that the United States now stands ready for direct military intervention in the Syrian conflict when the weather permits.
Left behind in the Persian Gulf is just one US aircraft carrier, the USS Stennis and its strike group.

Welcoming NATO’s decision Tuesday, Dec. 4, to deploy Patriot missile batteries in Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday: “The protection from NATO will be three dimensional; one is the short-range Patriots, the second is the middle-range Terminal High Altitude Air Defense [THAD] system and the last is the AEGIS system, which counters missiles that can reach outside the atmosphere.”
debkafile’s military sources: While the Patriot is land-based and will be deployed on the Turkish-Syrian border, the THAD and the Aegis have just reached the Syrian coast aboard the USS Eisenhower strike group.
“With this integrated system,” said Davutoglu, Turkey will have maximum protection.”

He added: “The Syrian regime has 700 missiles,” and their location, storage method and holders are no secret to Ankara. This was the first time Ankara had made threats to destroy Syrian missiles, including any carrying chemical warheads.

U.S.-Approved Weapons Transfer Ended Up With Libyan Jihadis – NYTimes.com.

By JAMES RISEN, MARK MAZZETTI and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

US ‘huddling’ with Israel, other allies as Assad’s forces ‘load chemical weapons into bombs’ | The Times of Israel.

Syrian troops reportedly began mixing components over the weekend; ‘remote’ danger of chemical weapons being fired into Israel, CNN contributor notes

US soldiers training for chemical warfare in August. (Illustrative photo: Marv Lynchard/US Department of Defense)

Syria’s military is ready to use chemical weapons against its own people and has prepared the necessary components, US TV stations reported on Wednesday evening, citing US officials and intelligence sources.

Regime forces are now awaiting orders from President Bashar Assad to use the weaponry, NBC reported, as tensions in the region ramp up around reports of activity around the country;s massive chemical weapons stockpiles.

Washington is “huddling” with its allies, including Israel, over how to grapple with the danger, according to CNN. US intelligence, Israeli intelligence and other agencies were “working this problem round the clock,” it said, adding that concern in the region “is growing by the hour.”

A chemical attack on a city like Homs in western Syria, with a population of about a million, could wipe out a third of the city in a few hours, ex-CIA agent Robert Baer told the station. In 1988, Iraq used chemical weapons on Kurds in the northern city of Halabja, killing up to 5,000 people in a matter of hours.

Baer also noted that with Al-Qaeda reportedly “on the ground” in Syria, there was a “remote” danger of chemical weapons being fired into Israel. There were “all sorts of disastrous scenarios,” he said. “They’re remote, but it’s a possibility.”

CNN said the Pentagon was fully focused on the Syrian chemical weapons threat, and was coordinating with Israel, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Officials were working on “targeting options” to present to the White House, to try to stop the Syrians using the weaponry.

Officials told news network NBC that regime forces had already locked and loaded precursory chemicals for deadly nerve agent sarin into bombs which could be dropped from planes, complicating the situation.

According to CNN, striking the warheads after the chemical has been mixed could release the deadly gases, potentially causing catastrophe.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels Wednesday, said Assad’s regime was on the brink of collapse, and “an increasingly desperate Assad regime” might resort to chemical warfare.

“Bombshells filled with chemicals can be carried by Syrian Air Force fighter-bombers,” NBC reported, and “unguided short-range Frog-7 artillery rockets may be capable of carrying chemical payloads.” So too could various Syrian missile systems, it added.

Syria currently holds one of the world’s largest stores of chemical weapons, leading to international concern over both Damascus’s use of the weapons and the regime’s ability to keep them out of the hands of terror groups

On Tuesday, CNN reported that US intelligence believes pro-Assad forces at a chemical weapons plant began “mixing two chemicals needed to make deadly sarin gas” over the weekend. It also said then that Assad had not yet ordered an attack, but “is getting ready possibly for a limited strike…. The regime might use artillery shells filled with sarin” against rebel forces, it quoted US intelligence sources saying.

Pentagon sources told the network they were concerned both over the use of the chemical agents on Syrians and of the possibility of the weaponry spilling into neighboring countries, whichw as described as a “full-fledged crisis.”

Fighting has indeed spilled over into neighboring states several times in the course of the 20-month civil war, in which some 40,000 people are said to have been killed. This has included several incidents in which mortar shells fell on the Golan Heights, inside Israel, and IDF vehicles were hit by bullet fire, including Thursday morning. Israel has fired back at the sources of fire, reportedly injuring and possibly even killing Syrian troops on two occasions.

The CNN report said that the US analysis is that Assad is not ready to flee Syria at this point, but that if he did, his possible bolt holes could be Venezuela, Russia or Iran. The Russians, however, are growing increasingly wary of Assad, in part because of signs that he might be readying to use chemical weapons against his own people. And he would likely be safest from retribution in Iran.

The US TV reports Wednesday came several hours after the Times of London reported that the US, along with several key allies, is prepared to launch a military intervention in Syria should the Assad government resort to using its chemical weapons against the rebels.

A military source told the Times that US forces could be ready “rapidly, within days,” and implied that the necessary forces were already in the region.

Israel is particularly concerned that Syrian chemical and biological weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists and be used against Israel.

“Together with the international community, we are closely monitoring developments in Syria regarding its stores of chemical weapons… Such weapons must not be used and must not reach terrorist elements,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday at a forum in Jerusalem.

‘Syrian army prepared to use chemical weap… JPost – Middle East.