Syria's chemical arms match Israel's nuclear arsenal

The Syrian regime has a large arsenal of chemical weapons, which matches up to Israels nuclear arsenal, the defected former head of Syria's chemical warfare program told Al-Arabiya news channel. Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected from the regime earlier this year, was party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians. He told Al Arabiya where the Syrian regime has stored its chemical weapons in specific cities across the war-torn country, highlighting chemical warehouses in the city of Homs and weapons stored also in scientific research center in Aleppo. "Syrias chemical arsenal has reached similar levels to Israels nuclear weapons," he said in the interview. Israel is believed to be one of the worlds largest nuclear superpowers. Sillu, who once led the armys chemical weapons training program, said in June that the main storage sites for mustard gas and nerve agents are supposed to be guarded by thousands of Syrian troops but that they would be easily overrun. "Probably anyone from the Free Syrian Army or any Islamic extremist group could take them over," he said.