NERVE GAS

Syria Prepared to Use Chemical Weapons

Is awaiting Assad's go-ahead.

If the situation in Syria sounds horrendous now, it could be getting much, much worse. Just this week, Syrian government said it would not use chemical warfare on its own people, but Wednesday, U.S. authorities warned that government troops have loaded nerve agents inside aerial bombs and are awaiting final orders from President Bashar al-Assad to use them. “There’s little the outside world can do to stop it” once the orders are given and the sarin bombs—made of a deadly nerve gas—are loaded into planes, an official told NBC. Despite strong warnings by President Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Syrian government has ordered its Chemical Weapons Corps to “be prepared.” The U.S. previously said it would intervene if chemical weapons were used and Clinton said today that implementing these weapons would be crossing “a red line.”