SYRIA – Syrian forces have mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs in  preparation for possible use on President Bashar Assad’s own people, Fox News  confirms.

A senior U.S. official told Fox News that bombs were loaded with components  of sarin gas, a deadly nerve gas. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs  until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed.

NBC News,  which first reported this latest escalation in the Syrian civil war, cited  sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto  planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons  against civilians pending orders from Assad.

The United States has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and  would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict.

In Brussels earlier Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  reiterated concerns that “an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to  chemical weapons” or lose control of them to militant groups.

She also said NATO’s decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey’s  southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies.  The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted Wednesday in the Turkish  newspaper Sabah as saying that Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them  long-range.

Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria’s civil war battled Wednesday in the  streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and  wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said.

The bloodshed is a sign of just how vulnerable Lebanon is to getting sucked  into the Syrian crisis. The countries share a porous border and a complex web of  political and sectarian ties that is easily enflamed.    (read more)

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