TheCable

The US intelligence community possesses strong evidence that the Syrian army used chemical weapons in the Idlib province on April 4, said Mike Pompeo, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The CIA director said the intelligence community had begun to uncover what “exactly” had happened in Syria and held contacts with US partners.

“I told him [Trump] that the intelligence community had concluded that the chemical weapon had indeed been used in the attack and it had been launched by the Syrian regime,” Pompeo said.

“I knew that the intelligence community had solid evidence … I said to Mr President that we have high confidence that this really took place.”

The Syrian army was blamed for the Khan Sheikhoun incident, which killed 80 people, including children, and injured 200 more.

Syrian authorities, however, said they had never used chemical weapons against civilians or terrorists, and that the nation’s entire chemical arsenal had been destroyed under the supervision of the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons.

The US reacted by launching 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian governmental military airfield in Ash Sha’irat on April 7.