![US Navy fires a land attack missile on 7 April 2017 [Robert S. Price/U.S. Navy/Handout/Anadolu]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017_4-7-US-strikes-Syria-after-chemical-attack.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
The White House said on Monday it appears the Syrian government is preparing for another chemical weapons attack and it warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad he and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it conducts such an attack.
The White House statement said preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an April 4 chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians and prompted President Donald Trump to order a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base.
Read: Syrian regime carried out ‘coordinated chemical attacks on Aleppo’
Trump ordered the strike on the Shayrat airfield in Syria in April in reaction to what Washington said was a poison gas attack by Assad’s government that killed at least 70 people in rebel-held territory. Syria denied it carried out the attack.
The strike put Washington in confrontation with Russia, which has advisers in Syria aiding its close ally Assad.
#WarInSyria
US officials at the time called the intervention a “one-off” intended to deter future chemical weapons attacks and not an expansion of the US role in the Syrian war.