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10-11-2012, 05:38 AM
(CNN) -- The United States deployed troops to Jordan to help monitor Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons and determine what efforts to take if violence spreads to neighboring nations, the U.S. defense chief said.
The announcement follows recent news that President Bashar al-Assad's forces moved some of the weapons for security reasons. Reports have emerged that rebels are focusing their efforts on capturing some of the storage sites.
"We continue to be concerned about security at those sites," U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Wednesday after a meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
"We want to ensure that security is maintained and we want to be very sure that those (weapons) do not fall into the wrong hands."
Roughly 150 U.S. Army special operations soldiers have been working with Jordanian forces to monitor the chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria while trying to determine how to respond should an issue arise, according to the defense chief.
"We have a group of our forces there, working to help them build a headquarters and to ensure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so we can deal with all of the possible consequences," Panetta said.
"We've also been working with them to try to develop their own military and operational capabilities in the event of any contingency there."
There has been a growing international concern about the fate of the weapons should the civil war escalate or fall into the hands of rebels.
President Barack Obama warned al-Assad and "other players on the ground" -- presumably rebels -- that any attempt to move or use the chemical and biological weapons would be crossing a "red line" and prompt a swift U.S. military response.
The United States also has been working with Turkey as part of its effort to monitor the weapons sites.
"They are obviously concerned about the (weapons storage) sites as well," Panetta said. "So we've worked with them to do what we can to monitor the situation."
Syria is believed to have one of the "largest and most advanced chemical warfare program in the Arab world," said Michael Eisenstadt, director of the military and security studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html
The announcement follows recent news that President Bashar al-Assad's forces moved some of the weapons for security reasons. Reports have emerged that rebels are focusing their efforts on capturing some of the storage sites.
"We continue to be concerned about security at those sites," U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Wednesday after a meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
"We want to ensure that security is maintained and we want to be very sure that those (weapons) do not fall into the wrong hands."
Roughly 150 U.S. Army special operations soldiers have been working with Jordanian forces to monitor the chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria while trying to determine how to respond should an issue arise, according to the defense chief.
"We have a group of our forces there, working to help them build a headquarters and to ensure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so we can deal with all of the possible consequences," Panetta said.
"We've also been working with them to try to develop their own military and operational capabilities in the event of any contingency there."
There has been a growing international concern about the fate of the weapons should the civil war escalate or fall into the hands of rebels.
President Barack Obama warned al-Assad and "other players on the ground" -- presumably rebels -- that any attempt to move or use the chemical and biological weapons would be crossing a "red line" and prompt a swift U.S. military response.
The United States also has been working with Turkey as part of its effort to monitor the weapons sites.
"They are obviously concerned about the (weapons storage) sites as well," Panetta said. "So we've worked with them to do what we can to monitor the situation."
Syria is believed to have one of the "largest and most advanced chemical warfare program in the Arab world," said Michael Eisenstadt, director of the military and security studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/11/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html