US intelligence report: 1,400 killed in Syria chemical attack

More than 1,400 people — including 426 children — were
killed in last week’s Syrian chemical weapons attack, according to a U.S.
intelligence report released by the White House Friday.

{mosads}The unclassified report says that U.S. intelligence assesses
“with high confidence” that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime carried out
the attack in the Damascus suburbs.

“Our high confidence assessment is the strongest position
that the U.S. Intelligence Community can take short of confirmation,” the report
says.

The report is being released as part of the Obama
administration’s effort to prove that Assad is responsible for last week’s
chemical attack, a crucial hurdle for the administration ahead of possible military
action.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday
that its findings are “as clear as they are compelling.”

“I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Read for
yourself, everyone, those listening, all of you, read for yourselves the
evidence from thousands of sources, evidence that is already publicly available,”
Kerry said.

The assessment, based on U.S. intelligence and open source
accounts from videos and social media, says there are at least 12 locations in
the Damascus area where the attacks occurred.

Some of the U.S. intelligence remains classified, the report
says, and is only being shared with Congress.

United Nations inspectors are currently in Damascus
finishing their own assessment of the attack.

The assessment asserts it is “highly unlikely” that
opposition forces carried out the Aug. 21 attack, something that’s been claimed
by the Assad regime and its allies.

It says that U.S. intelligence intercepted communications among Assad officials that confirmed the regime was behind the
attack, a detail that had been previously reported.

“We intercepted communications involving a senior official
intimately familiar with the offensive who confirmed that chemical weapons were
used by the regime on August 21 and was concerned with the U.N. inspectors
obtaining evidence,” the report says.

The Obama administration also said it had intelligence of
chemical weapons preparations by the regime — including personnel with the Syrian
Scientific Studies and Research Center — in the three days prior to the attack.

The assessment also presents an argument for why Assad’s
forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack, a question that has been
raised by those skeptical that the Syrian president ordered the strike.

“We assess that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons
over the last year primarily to gain the upper hand or break a stalemate in
areas where it has struggled to seize and hold strategically valuable territory,”
the assessment says.

“In this regard, we continue to judge that the Syrian regime
views chemical weapons as one of many tools in its arsenal, including air power
and ballistic missiles, which they indiscriminately use against the opposition.”

The report says that three Damascus hospitals received 3,600
patients in the hours after the attack “displaying symptoms consistent with
nerve agent exposure.”