France's government says it has no samples of the chemical weapons it believes were used in Syria, but launched a military response based on open-source information and intelligence gathering.
France released its assessment Saturday of what happened in the Syrian town of Douma on April 7. It was the basis for France's involvement in a joint military operation launched Saturday with the U.S. and Britain to target Syrian chemical weapons facilities.
The assessment cites "the absence to date of chemical samples analyzed by our own laboratories." It says the government evaluated publicly available information from non-governmental organizations and other sources as well as unspecified French intelligence.
It concludes that there is "no plausible scenario other than that of an attack by Syrian armed forces." Syria denies responsibility and says it gave up its chemical arsenal.
The assessment notes eight chlorine attacks ahead of the "major attack" on Douma and 44 allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria over the past year.
AP
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