RED LINE

U.S. Mulls Chemical Weapons Seizure

In Syria.

The Pentagon informed the Obama administration that seizing Syria’s supply of chemical weapons would require more than 75,000 troops. The Defense Department has not yet been ordered to draw up detailed plans for such an operation, but it calls into question whether or not the U.S. could act quickly in such an instance. The assessment emerged amid reports that militant group Hizbollah has set up training camps near some chemical weapons depots. In August, President Obama had warned that “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.”