DHAKA: Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of president Bashar Assad.

Germany’s ‘Bild am Sonntag’ paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence says The Jerusalem Post.

Syrian brigade and division commanders had been asking the Presidential Palace to allow them to use chemical weapons for the last four-and-a-half months, according to radio messages intercepted by German spies, but permission had always been denied, the paper said.

This could mean Assad may not have personally approved the attack close to Damascus on August 21 in which more than 1,400 are estimated to have been killed, intelligence officers suggested.

BDST: 1923 HRS, SEPT 08, 2013
RoR/RK