Biological and Chemical Weapons

BEIRUT — A leading member of a United Nations investigatory commission says there are “strong concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof” that Syrian rebels have used the nerve agent sarin. Carla del Ponte, a former...

BEIRUT — Huge explosions were reported in Damascus early Sunday, just two days after a reported Israeli airstrike in Syria targeting surface-to-air missiles possibly destined for neighboring Lebanon and the militant group Hezbollah. Syrian state...

The hawks are squawking. Congressional conservatives and the right-wing media are blasting President Barack Obama for going soft on the Syrians. The president insists there is a "game-changing" red line the Syrian government will have crossed if it is...

PARIS, May 27 (Reuters) - Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebel fighters in Damascus, according to first-hand accounts in France's Le Monde newspaper. The newspaper, in a report issued on its...

JERUSALEM -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Israel on Sunday to begin a weeklong tour of the Middle East as the region grapples with the worsening civil war in Syria and the stubborn nuclear threat from Iran. Making his first visit to the...

WASHINGTON -- The British and French governments have asked the United Nations to investigate what they believe is credible evidence that the Syrian regime has used small amounts of chemical weapons in recent months, officials said. The evidence,...

BEIRUT — The strange case of an alleged chemical attack in Syria has taken some odd turns. Like so many other mass-casualty attacks in Syria, the alleged poison-gas strike Tuesday in northern Syria has become a case of each side in the conflict...

WASHINGTON -- Just two days after the Boston bombings, reports of letters possibly laced with poison and suspicious packages in government buildings set the nation’s capital on edge Wednesday and resurrected memories of the jittery weeks after the...

JERUSALEM -- Amid reports that Israeli warplanes struck a weapons cache in Syria this week, a senior Israel defense ministry official said Saturday his nation was closely monitoring unrest in its neighbor but remained confident that Syria’s chemical...

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Tuesday he is renewing efforts to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will search for members of Congress to help him get it done. “I’m going to go back at this,” Obama...

With the Iraq War behind us and our departure from Afghanistan underway, the United States could be entering a well-earned respite from fighting. But even before peace can take hold, hawks are singing the old country song: "I've enjoyed as much of this as...

WASHINGTON -- People who talk incessantly often talk imprecisely, and Barack Obama, who is as loquacious as he is impressed with his verbal dexterity, has talked himself into a corner concerning Syria and chemical weapons. This is condign punishment for...