US News

Assad kills hundreds in gas attack – 426 kids among dead: Kerry

The Obama administration unveiled its indictment of Bashar al-Assad’s regime yesterday, showing the world newly declassified intelligence files that revealed how Syria slaughtered at least 1,429 of its own people — including 426 children — with poison gas.

Stung by charges that the United States is moving too boldly, too fast and largely alone to punish Assad, officials disclosed that three days before the Aug. 21 attack, Syrian chemical-weapons experts were near the target site, warning regime backers to put on gas masks.

Secretary of State John Kerry laid out the administration’s case like a prosecutor, calling Assad a “thug and a murderer,” while the White House sent reporters copies of a four-page intelligence assessment of the attack.

“We know that for three days before the attack, the Syrian regime’s chemical-weapons personnel were on the ground in the area, making preparations,” Kerry said.

“We know where the rockets were launched from and at what time. We know where they landed and when. We know rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and went only to opposition-controlled or contested neighborhoods,” he added.

“We know that a senior regime official who knew about the attack confirmed that chemical weapons were used by the regime, reviewed the impact, and actually was afraid that they would be discovered.”

Kerry said the declassified documents “are as clear as they are compelling,” adding: “I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Read for yourself, everyone.”

US intelligence intercepted the communications of a senior Syrian official who confirmed chemical weapons were used and feared UN arms inspectors would find out who was responsible.

Before the file was released yesterday, estimates of the death toll in the Aug. 21 gas attack ranged from a few hundred to 1,300.

“So the primary question is really no longer, ‘What do we know?’ The question is, ‘What are we — we collectively — what are we in the world gonna do about it?’ ” Kerry said.

Kerry, President Obama and other US officials went on the offensive after setbacks to US plans to lead an allied strike on Syria.

Among the developments:

* U.N. experts who collected samples from last week’s alleged chemical weapons strike outside Damascus left Syria for the Netherlands on Saturday.

* Obama ridiculed the “incapacity” of the UN Security Council to act and gave his clearest signal that the United States is willing to act alone.

“We cannot accept a world where women and children and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale,” he said.

Obama said no decision had been made. But a strike could be imminent because a UN team carried out its fourth and final day of inspection and prepared to leave Syria.

US officials indicated this week that no military action would be launched until the inspectors were out of the country.

* Kerry said Assad’s chemical-weapons arsenal, the largest in the Mideast, poses a threat far beyond Syrian borders.

“It matters to our security and the security of our allies. It matters to Israel. It matters to our close friends Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon — all of whom live just a stiff breeze away from Damascus,” he said.

* NATO ruled out joining the US-led effort, but French President Francois Hollande reaffirmed his nation’s support for “firm and proportionate action.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the limited strikes Obama spoke of don’t go far enough. “The goal should be to force the regime out,” he said.

* An NBC poll found 79 percent of Americans feel Congress should approve any military action.

* Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham also urged Obama to avoid “merely cosmetic” strikes.

“Instead, the goal of military action should be to shift the balance of power on the battlefield against Assad and his forces,” they said in a statement.

* The BBC reported an airstrike, apparently by Assad’s jets, that pelted a school in the northern city of Aleppo with napalm.

Late yesterday, Syria responded to Kerry, calling his charges “lies and baseless.” Assad’s Foreign Ministry said the US claims were a “desperate attempt” to justify a strike.