Obama: Not ‘rushing to judgment’ on chemical weapons in Syria, need ‘hard, effective evidence’

President Obama tempered his tough rhetoric on Syria today, saying his administration wouldn’t be “rushing to judgment” on reports of chemical weapon attacks.

The US can’t lash out militarily against the regime of Bashar al-Assad without knowing exactly how the strongman might have used chemical weapons against his own people.

“We now have evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria,” Obama said during a wide-ranging press conference at the White House marking the first 100 days of his second term.


A premature US response could jeopardize Washington’s credibility in the region, according to the White House.


The White House has previously said use of chemical weapons would be crossing a “red line” and be a “game changer” in potentially drawing US military assistance to rebels.

“I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts. That’s what the American people would expect,” Obama said.


He went on to explain: “By game changer, I mean we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.”

On-going battles between government forces and rebels are only intensifying in the war-torn nation.

A bomb blast in central Damascus killed at least 13 people and wounded 70 today, in an attack state TV called a “cowardly” terrorist act.

Prime Minister Wael al-Haqi survived a car bombing yesterday.

Russia has banned its civilian airplanes from even crossing into Syrian airspace, after one crew reported it can come under fire.

The bombings appear to be part of an accelerated campaign by opposition forces seeking to topple Assad to strike at his heavily protected seat of power.

“I heard a very loud bang and then the ceiling collapsed on top of me,” said Zaher Nafeq, who owns a mobile phone shop in the Damascus Towers, a 28-floor office building. He was wounded in his hand and his mobile phone shop was badly damaged in the blast.

Syrian TV said Tuesday’s explosion was caused by a “terrorist bombing” in the district of Marjeh, a commercial area in central Damascus. Assad’s regime refers to opposition fighters as “terrorists.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which the TV said also wounded 70 people. Car bombs and suicide attacks targeting the Damascus and other cities that remain under government control in the third year of the conflict have been claimed in the past by the al Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra group, which is fighting in Syria alongside rebels trying to topple Assad.





Inspecting the site of the bombing on Tuesday, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, who himself escaped a car bomb that targeted his convoy in December, told reporters the back-to-back attacks in the capital were in response to the “victories and achievements scored by the Syrian Arab Army on the ground against terrorism.”

With the recent influx of more advanced weapons and other foreign aid, the rebels have made significant gains in the south, seizing military bases and towns in the strategically important region between Damascus and the border with Jordan, hoping to eventually storm the capital from the south.

In a government counter offensive that involved ground troops and air power, Assad’s troops have reclaimed much of the strategic territory in the past weeks, fortifying the defenses of the capital.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 people were killed and 65 wounded in Tuesday’s blast. The group, which relies on a network on activists based in Syria, often gives different casualty tolls from the figures released by the government. The discrepancy could not immediately be reconciled.

Local residents said they heard gunfire in the area of the attack immediately after the blast went off around 11:00 a.m., apparently meant to disperse people and open the way for ambulances. The residents spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from authorities for speaking to reporters.

The explosion underlined the tenuous security in the Syrian capital, just a day after a remotely detonated improvised explosive devise struck Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi’s convoy. The premier escaped the assassination attempt in the capital’s western neighborhood of Mazzeh, and state TV said al-Haliqi was not hurt in the bombing.


The Observatory said Monday’s bombing killed at least five people, including two of al-Halqi’s bodyguards and one of the drivers in his convoy.

The bombings laid bare the vulnerability of Assad’s regime and highlighted an accelerating campaign targeting government officials, from mid-level civil servants to the highest echelons of the Syrian regime.


Also on Tuesday, Syrian troops battled opposition fighters near a military helicopter base in the northern province of Aleppo, killing 15 rebels in a single airstrike against their positions, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, the Observatory’s chief.

The rebels tried to storm the Mannagh base late Monday but the regime deployed fighter jets to the area, pounding rebel positions around the helicopter base, which is located near Syria’s border with Turkey, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the Observatory’s chief.

Fighting was also raging Tuesday around other airports in the country, including the Damascus International Airport just south of the capital, Abdula-Rahman said.

In the north, rebels besieged military airport facilities, including Kweiras northeast of Aleppo city and the Nairab military base, adjacent to Aleppo’s civilian airport, the country’s second largest.

Activists in Syria, who are part of the Observatory’s network of informants, also reported clashes around an air base in northern Idlib province and near air bases in the provincial capital of Dier el-Zour in the oil-rich province in Syria’s east, along the border with Iraq.

The air power is Assad’s greatest advantage in the civil war and the Syrian leader has exploited it to push back rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in its northern stronghold.


But the rebels have repeatedly complained to their Western backers that their weapons are no match for Assad’s airpower. They say they cannot effectively hold on to territory they capture as long as Assad’s regime maintains control of the skies.

Earlier this month, a US rights group accused the Syrian regime of committing war crimes with indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed more than 4,000 civilians since summer.

Human Rights Watch said Assad’s air force has dropped “imprecise and inherently indiscriminate” munitions, including cluster bombs, on civilian areas, hitting hospitals, bakeries and residential buildings.

With AP

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