Russia warns US of proportional response to any preemptive measures against Syrian forces as US official calls intelligence behind warning ‘far from conclusive’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

US defence secretary James Mattis has said that Syria appears to have heeded a warning from Washington not to carry out a chemical weapons attack.

Meanwhile Russia, the main backer of President Bashar al-Assad, warned that it would respond proportionately if the US took preemptive measures against Syrian forces.

US issues warning to Syria after finding 'potential preparations' for sarin attack Read more

The White House said on Monday it appeared the Syrian military was preparing to conduct a chemical weapons attack and said that Assad and his forces would “pay a heavy price” if it did so.

The warning was based on intelligence that indicated preparations for such a strike were under way at Syria’s Shayrat airfield, US officials said.

“It appears that they took the warning seriously,” Mattis said. “They didn’t do it,” he told reporters flying with him to Brussels for a meeting of Nato defence ministers.

He offered no evidence other than the fact that an attack had not taken place.

Asked whether he believed Assad’s forces had called off any such strike completely, Mattis said: “I think you better ask Assad about that.“

The intelligence that prompted the administration’s warning was “far from conclusive”, said a US official familiar with it. “It did not come close to saying that a chemical weapons attack was coming,” the official said.

The intelligence consisted of a Syrian warplane being observed moving into a hangar at the Shayrat airbase, where US and allied intelligence agencies suspect the Assad government is hiding chemical weapons, said a second US official.

Mattis said Syria’s chemical weapons threat was larger than any single location. “I think that Assad’s chemical program goes far beyond one airfield,” he said.

US and allied intelligence officers had for some time identified several sites where they suspected Assad’s government may have been hiding newly made chemical weapons from inspectors, another US official familiar with the intelligence said.

The US launched a cruise missile strike on Shayrat in April following the deaths of 87 people in what Washington said was a poison gas attack in rebel-held territory.

What do we know about regime's use of chemical weapons in Syria? Read more

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Wednesday that Moscow will respond if the US takes measures against Syrian government forces.

Speaking at a news conference with his German counterpart, Lavrov said he hoped that the US was not preparing to use its intelligence assessments about the Syrian government’s intentions as a pretext to mount a “provocation” in Syria.

Russian officials have described the war in Syria as the biggest source of tension between Moscow and Washington and say the April cruise missile strike ordered by Donald Trump raised the risk of confrontation between them.

In Washington, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, credited Trump with saving Syrian lives.

“Due to the president’s actions, we did not see an incident,” Haley told US lawmakers. “I would like to think that the president saved many innocent men, women and children.“

Although the number of people killed in suspected chemical attacks is a small portion of the total dead in Syria’s civil war, estimated at close to half a million, footage of victims writhing in agony has caused particular revulsion.

On the Syrian battlefields, Turkish artillery bombarded and destroyed Kurdish YPG militia targets after the group’s fighters opened fire on Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria.

The US supports the YPG in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, while Nato ally Turkey regards them as terrorists indistinguishable from militants from the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers party), which is carrying out an insurgency in south-east Turkey.

The Turkish army said YPG machine-gun fire on Tuesday evening targeted Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels south of the town of Azaz. Artillery struck back in retaliation, a Turkish military statement said.

In Geneva, the UN human rights chief said at least 173 civilians have been killed in air and ground operations against Islamic State in Raqqa this month.