US officials told Reuters that the US, France and UK missiles strike had only limited impact on Assad's ability to carry out chemical weapons attacks.
The conclusion contrasts with the Trump administration’s assertion that the strikes on Saturday hit at the heart of Assad’s chemical weapons programme, language suggesting that Assad’s ability to stage more attacks had been dealt a devastating blow, Reuters said.
The United States, France and Britain destroyed three targets tied to Syria’s weapons program, but the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the available intelligence indicated that Assad’s stock of chemicals and precursors was believed to be scattered far beyond the three targets, some of it is stored in schools and civilian apartment buildings, which one of the officials referred to as “human shields.” according to Reuters' report.
U.S. officials said the assessment was that the strikes, particularly on Barzah, did degrade Syria’s chemical weapons capability.
U.S. intelligence concluded that Barzah Research and Development Center was involved in the production and testing of chemical and biological warfare technology.
But the assessment also indicated that a large quantity of the chemical weapons was stored elsewhere and that Syria’s chemical weapons programme, while crude, “is about as good as it needs to be for Assad’s purposes,” another official said.
For example, chlorine, which the United States assesses was used in the April 7 attack, is a common industrial chemical that is not difficult to find or weaponise, experts say. And that makes crippling a chlorine capability through military strikes far more difficult than, say, more sophisticated chemical or biological warfare agents.