In shadow of Iraq, U.S. has 'high confidence' Syria carried out chemical attack

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies publicly disclosed on Friday some of the information that led to a "high-confidence" assessment that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a chemical weapons attack on neighborhoods outside Damascus.

But the declassified intelligence report also showed what the U.S. government does not have: clear evidence that Assad personally ordered the attack, and physiological evidence confirming what caused the deaths of an estimated 1,429 Syrians on August 21.