U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks with reporters after meeting Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Egypt's Defense Minister in Cairo, on Wednesday, April 24, 2013. / Pool,AP Photo/Jim Watson
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Syrian regime has likely used chemical weapons on a "small scale."
Hagel was speaking to reporters in Abu Dhabi. He says the White House has informed members of Congress that, within the last day, U.S. intelligence concluded with "some degree of varying confidence" that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons — specifically sarin gas.
Hagel says, quote, "It violates every convention of warfare."
According to a letter sent to Sen. John McCain obtained by CBS News, the assessment of chemical weapons use in Syria was "based in part on physiological samples."
[h=3]Obama: If Syria used chemical weapons, it's a "game changer"[/h]
In response to the letter, McCain said he thought it was "pretty obvious" that a red line has been crossed.
President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would be a "game-changer" in the U.S. position on intervening in the two-year-old Syrian civil war.
Last month, Syria expert Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Institution's Doha Center, told CBSNews.com that the government has been "experimenting with various compounds and mixtures to see how they could use these (chemical agents) in a localized fashion."
Shaikh said his sources, who travel to and from Damascus and maintain contact with both current and former regime officials, are certain that Assad's regime has tried out less lethal, less widely dispersed compounds for months.
/ CBS News/DigitalGlobe
