DAMASCUS (TIP): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his government handed over all its chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013 and could not have been behind last week’s suspected sarin attack.

“There was no order to make any attack… We gave up our arsenal a few years ago. Even if we have them, we wouldn’t use them,” Assad said in an exclusive interview with AFP in Damascus on Wednesday. (AFP)

Coalition airstrike mistakenly kills 18 Syrian rebels: Pentagon

WASHINGTON (TIP): An airstrike on Tuesday by a US-led coalition fighting Islamic State mistakenly killed 18 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces south of the city of Tabqa, Syria, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

“The strike was requested by the partnered forces, who had identified the target location as an ISIS fighting position,” it said in a statement, referring to the Islamic State militant group by an acronym. “The target location was actually a forward Syrian Democratic Forces fighting position.” (Reuters)