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U.S. Justifies Syria Airstrike
(Washington Post) Josh Rogin - The U.S. administration distributed lengthy internal notes to government agencies on Thursday which lays out the justifications for the strikes on a Syrian airbase. "We assess with a high degree of confidence that the chemical weapons attack earlier this week was launched from this site by air assets under the command of the Assad regime. We also assess, with a similar degree of confidence, that the Assad regime used a chemical nerve agent consistent with sarin in these attacks. As you know, Damascus and Moscow assured us all these weapons had been removed and destroyed." The administration rejected the Russian government's claims that the recent chemical weapons attack involved an opposition chemical weapons depot, calling it "a completely implausible assertion." "Russia promotes a set of false facts, supported only by the Assad regime and its backers...as it does after each and every atrocity launched by the regime." The document also noted that Iranian forces, Shia militias, Hizbullah and other "allied Shia militant foot soldiers" have played a key role in the killing of hundreds of thousands of Syrians. It concludes: "Weapons of mass destruction use by any actor lowers the threshold for others that may seek to follow suit."