MUSCAT, Oman -- Defense Secretary James Mattis warned the Syrian government on Sunday not to use chemical weapons in its civil war and said President Donald Trump's administration has made it clear that it would be "very unwise" to use gas in attacks.
Mattis told reporters traveling with him to the Mideast that he was disturbed by reports of civilian casualties from bombings by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.
"Right now we're getting reports -- I don't have evidence that I can show you -- but I'm aware of the reports of chlorine gas use," he said before arriving Sunday in Oman.
The U.S. responded militarily last year to reported Syrian government use of sarin gas, and Mattis was asked whether the administration is now considering retaliating for chlorine gas use.
"I'm not going to strictly define it. We have made it very clear that it would be very unwise to use gas" as a weapon, Mattis said.
He said the latest reports of Syrian government forces killing civilians in eastern Ghouta show that troops are "at best indiscriminately" attacking and "at worst targeting hospitals. I don't know which it is, whether they're incompetent or whether they're committing illegal acts or both."
On Saturday, Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, denied opposition charges that government forces used poisonous gas in their attacks on those suburbs of the capital, Damascus.
In Washington, CIA Director Mike Pompeo noted that President Donald Trump has said he will not tolerate chemical weapons attacks, but has not yet made a decision about the latest reports.
"In this case, the intelligence community is working diligently to verify what happened there," Pompeo said in an interview on CBS' Face the Nation.
"I've seen the pictures. You've seen the pictures as well. We have a higher standard to make sure we understand precisely what took place, precisely who did it so that our response can meet the threat."
Mattis said Russia, which intervened militarily in Syria to support Assad's government, could be complicit in the civilian casualties.
"Either Russia is incompetent or in cahoots with Assad," Mattis said. "There's an awful lot of reports about chlorine gas use or about symptoms that could be resulting from chlorine gas."
Added Pompeo: "The president asks me nearly every day what it is the intelligence community knows about the Syrian regime's use of chemical weapons and who else -- the Russians or the Iranians -- who might be responsible for them."
GHOUTA DIVIDED
In Syria, government forces divided eastern Ghouta in two, pro-government media said Sunday, dealing a major setback to rebels and threatening to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation at the doors of the country's capital.
A military media outlet linked to the Syrian army and its Lebanese allies, the militant group Hezbollah, said pro-government forces broke through rebel lines to establish a corridor through the besieged eastern Ghouta region after capturing the town of Mudeira.
The advance cuts off the towns of Douma and Harasta from the rest of the enclave, according to the Central Military Media outlet. Douma is eastern Ghouta's largest settlement.
The enclave has now been split in two, with one side measuring 10 square miles and the other 8 square miles.
In Douma, residents and local authorities are now considering evacuating the town, said local council member Iyad Abdelaziz.
"The idea of leaving was refused outright, at first, but now with the regime advances and the siege that's been tightened, there are negotiations about something along those lines," Abdelaziz relayed by voice note.
Government jets pounded Harasta on Sunday evening, said Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station, which was broadcasting live from a lookout over the town.
Hezbollah is one of several regional Shiite militias organized by Iran to support government forces and put down the rebellion sparked by the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in 2011.
The government's advance followed 22 days of intensive ground and air assaults on rebels and civilians trapped inside eastern Ghouta, which have killed over 1,100 people in the past three weeks according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
At least 12 civilians died under shelling and airstrikes on Sunday, according to the Observatory. The activist-run Ghouta Media Center put the toll at 17 people dead. The Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, also known as the White Helmets, said the town of Arbeen was struck 44 times, killing nine people.
The Syrian military command said it established a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to leave eastern Ghouta, but few have used it. Residents are afraid of being conscripted into the army, or being detained arbitrarily or barred from returning to their homes.
"No one feels safe turning themselves over to the regime and hoping they will be treated as a regular citizen again," said Abdelaziz.
Russia and the Syrian government accused rebels of blocking civilians from fleeing.
Russia's military command in Syria said Saturday it was negotiating with rebels to let them leave eastern Ghouta, but one of the two leading factions, Faylaq al-Rahman, issued a statement saying it will refuse to surrender or leave.
Russia's military said 52 civilians were able to flee the enclave for safety in government-held territory outside. There were 26 children among the evacuees, according to Russian news agencies.
They were the first recorded civilian evacuations from eastern Ghouta since government forces outlined the humanitarian corridor.
OMAN AND IRAN
While in Oman, Mattis planned to meet today with the country's supreme ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said. Oman is a longtime security partner of the U.S., though some question whether it is facilitating, or turning a blind eye to, the movement of Iranian weapons to Yemen to aid Houthi rebels.
Asked whether Oman is assisting Iran in this respect, Mattis said, "I'm not willing to say that." He said he expects to discuss Yemen with Qaboos. Oman has long-standing commercial and political ties to Iran, an Omani neighbor and U.S. nemesis.
While ostensibly a member of the Saudi-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council, Oman has struck out on its own diplomatic path in the region. Oman was the site of secret talks between Iran and the U.S. that birthed Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Oman also has negotiated to help release Western detainees in Iran, as well as Yemen, in recent years.
Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Saturday that Oman's role in the Persian Gulf is important to the U.S. at a time of sharp divisions among the Gulf Arab states, civil wars in Yemen and Syria, and growing Iranian influence in Iraq.
"The pattern in the Gulf is one of deep concern for the U.S.," Cordesman said.
Mattis said he also will visit Bahrain this week. It is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
Information for this article was contributed by Philip Issa and James Heintz of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/12/2018