US warns of Syria air strikes

President Donald Trump has not ruled out military action to stop chemical weapons attacks in Syria, senior administration officials said Thursday, signaling a intensified effort to press the Assad regime and its Russian patrons.

In the wake of yet more suspected sarin and chlorine attacks blamed on the regime, Washington said it wants to send a message to Bashar al-Assad and Moscow that enough is enough.

The latest unconfirmed attack came on Thursday, in the rebel-held town of Douma. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people suffered respiratory problems after a rocket attack.

A senior US official told AFP that military options against Damascus similar to those launched in April 2017 were always on the table and "always feasible."

Trump "hasn't excluded anything" in the bid to halt the program, the official said. "Using military force is something that is still considered."

A second senior US official reported evidence that Assad's regime has a "ongoing production capability" focused on sarin and chlorine and is developing new ways to deploy the chemicals banned for weapons use.

"It looks like they are trying to evolve for either military reasons or to escape accountability. It is incredibly important to stop that before it gets off the ground," the official added.

The Assad regime appears to have altered course only slightly since the United States fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at Syrian airfield in 2017 after a large chemical attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhun.

On January 22, at least 21 people in Douma, including children, suffered breathing difficulties after a rocket attack on a besieged rebel enclave near Damascus.

An AFP correspondent at a hospital in the city saw people carrying babies wrapped in blankets, breathing through oxygen masks, some of them screaming.

Young girls and men sat on hospital beds, tears in their eyes, unable to stop coughing.