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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Syria WMD report: ‘Country is a chemical powder keg ready to explode’


WASHINGTON — President Bashar Assad could order weapons of mass destruction attacks to save his regime, a report said. The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies asserted that Assad
could employ Syria’s massive WMD arsenal against any rising Sunni revolt. In a report, the center warned that the Damascus regime could also fire biological or chemical weapons to stop any foreign military
intervention to save the rebels.



“Indeed, in this fluid environment and uncharted territory, everything is possible,” the report, titled “Assad’s Toxic Assets,” said. Authored by Chen Kane, Bilal Saab and Leonard Spector, the report outlined six scenarios in which Assad could employ WMD, which the opposition said already took place in the Syrian Army assault on Homs earlier this month. The report envisioned a decision by Assad or his younger brother, Maher, to fire CW or BW shells even at the risk of NATO intervention.
Another scenario was that Alawite generals order WMD strikes against the Sunni rebels. Assad has ordered deployment of elite army and special forces units to guard CW production facilities around such cities as Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Homs and Latakia.


“Should armed rebellion flare up again in areas that host chemical weapons facilities and munitions storage sites including Dumayr, Khan Abu Shamat and Al Furqlus and government forces find themselves facing overwhelming opposition, the generals on the ground could decide, without Assad’s authorization, to use chemical weapons against their opponents,” the report, dated March 13, said. “They could also be tempted to act preemptively, ‘using them before losing them.’ ”

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