The United States State Department issued a warning yesterday about a suspected use of chemical weapons in an assault on Idlib, with government forces attempting to clear out the last stronghold of anti-government fighters.
Unfortunately, we continue to see signs that the Assad regime may be renewing its use of chemical weapons, including an alleged chlorine attack in northwest Syria on the morning of May 19, 2019. We are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately.
U.S. State Department
The anti-government forces were the group being strongly supported by the United States. Currently, we maintain fewer than 2000 forces in the area, having shifted our mission from removal of Assad to the removal of ISIS fighters.
Now that ISIS no longer claims territory (although it remains an ideological threat) the United States has been drawing down its footprint in the Syrian region, while attempting to negotiate for the safety of some of the Kurdish fighters who aided the efforts against both Assad and ISIS.
Under President Trump, the U.S. has bombed the Syrian troops on two occasions following accusations of the usage of chemical weapons. In both cases, the damage was quickly repaired and the President was reprimanded by Russian President Putin. Russia has been a staunch defender of Assad, insisting that the Syrian government has not conducted them and reportedly fabricating a false attack against government forces in late 2018.
In both of the previous gas attacks, the United States made clear that it was responding not simply due to the nearby military presence of the United States, but because of a moral responsibility to curb the use of chemical weapons in war zones. It is reasonable to expect that, if the United States policy remains consistent and we are interested in defending former allies and the civilian populations supporting them, a series of bombing strikes may be in the wings.
