There’s a mystery at the heart of an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria this week: Syria’s government, suspected of carrying out the attack, was supposed to have gotten rid of all its chemical weapons in 2014. But rather than take military action, Obama agreed to a Russian deal to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons program. Under the agreement, Syria gave a manifest of its chemical weapons and facilities to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the global chemicals watchdog, which moved quickly to decommission the declared facilities and weapons. By the end of 2014, all of Syria’s declared chemical weapons were destroyed, along with 24 of Syria’s 27 declared production facilities. A suspected chemical attack changed everythingHere's some of what we know about the apparent chemical weapons attack in SyriaIs Islamic State luring U.S. coalition forces into killing civilians in airstrikes?

Source: Los Angeles Times April 07, 2017 01:07 UTC