chemical weapons

World News

Chemical Weapons Inspectors Haven't Reached Douma. Finger-Pointing Has Begun

8:55pm April 16, 2018

by Merrit Kennedy

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said a team of nine inspectors arrived in Damascus on Saturday but hasn't been allowed to go to the site of the alleged chemical attack.

A surface-to-air missile lit up the sky in Damascus early Saturday morning after President Trump announced airstrikes would be launched to deter the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons.

World News

Debates Ensue After Western Missiles Hit Syria

3:52pm April 15, 2018

by Sasha Ingber

The U.S., Britain and France carried out airstrikes against chemical research, storage and military facilities in Syria following a suspected chemical weapons attack.

For the second time in just over a year, President Trump ordered airstrikes on Syrian targets in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syria Is Latest Test For President Trump's Foreign Policy

12:30pm April 14, 2018

by Scott Horsley

The latest action in Syria — which comes shortly after the president said he wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from the country — illustrates the competing impulses that drive his foreign policy.

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The Damascus sky lights up with missile fire as a U.S.-led coalition launches an attack early Saturday, targeting different parts of the Syrian capital.

U.S.-Led Coalition Launches Attacks On Syria

10:56pm April 13, 2018

by Mark Katkov

The military strikes were ordered by President Trump in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on April 7 by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad on its citizens.

The USS Porter launches a tomahawk missile as part of the U.S. strikes in 2017 against the Syrian regime.

History Of U.S. Responses To Chemical Weapons Attacks In Syria

10:31pm April 13, 2018

by Larry Kaplow

Presidents Trump and Obama both have had to decide whether to take action against the Assad government after civilian deaths.

U.N. Security Council members meet about the suspected chemical attacks in Douma, Syria, at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

World News

Russia Vetoes U.S. Resolution On Syria In U.N. Security Council

4:52pm April 10, 2018

by Merrit Kennedy

Meanwhile, President Trump is weighing a possible military response. On Monday, he said "nothing is off the table" and has vowed to respond "forcefully."

A medical worker at a Damascus hospital holds a sign protesting a suspected chemical weapons attack outside the Syrian capital a year ago. The suspected attacks led the U.S. to fire a barrage of missiles at a Syrian air base on April 7, 2017.

5 Questions About Syria And Chemical Weapons

6:47pm April 09, 2018

by David Welna

Syria is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and says it neither possesses nor uses chemical weapons. Evidence indicates otherwise.

Police officers stand guard near a forensics tent in a Sainsbury's parking lot on Tuesday, as investigations continue more than a week after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

World News

Britain Gives Russia 'Until Midnight' To Explain Use Of Nerve Agent

5:13pm March 13, 2018

by Bill Chappell

Britain is preparing to take "commensurate but robust" action after it concluded that Russia is behind the use of a deadly nerve agent on U.K. soil, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says.

Military personnel wearing protective suits investigate the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, remain critically ill.

Nerve Agent Found In U.K. Is Rare And Definitely Russian

6:08pm March 12, 2018

by Geoff Brumfiel

Novichok-class agents were developed in top-secret Russian labs at the end of the Cold War. Experts say only Russia is known to have made them. "They've been a deep, dark secret," says one expert.

In this 1945 image, test subjects enter a gas chamber for a U.S. military experiment that will expose them to mustard gas.

For Veterans Mustard-Gassed In Secret Tests, Help Now Sits On President's Desk

2:43pm August 03, 2017

by Colin Dwyer

More than two years after NPR revealed the U.S. government broke promises to World War II veterans whom it exposed to mustard gas, Congress has passed a bill to help them finally get compensation.