By . Leon Watson . PUBLISHED: . 22:11 EST, 5 December 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 11:37 EST, 6 December 2012 . Syrian forces have mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs ready to use on President Bashar Assad's own people if needed, it was reported today. A senior U.S. official revealed that bombs were loaded with components of the deadly nerve gas sarin. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed. Scroll down for video . Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is believed to be preparing chemical weapons for use against his own people . Sarin disrupts the chemical balance in nerve cells and makes them to lock out in the ‘on’ position. Death usually results from suffocation, caused by the stoppage of the diaphram, the main muscle that controls a person's lungs. The first symptoms are a runny nose and tightness in the chest, followed by coughing, chest pain, confusion and loss of consciousness. Sarin was first developed by the Nazis in the 1930s as a pesticide and is 500 times more deadly than cyanide.One milligram of pure sarin is enough to kill a 10 stone person if absorbed into the skin or inhaled. The most shocking Sarin attack was in 1995 when the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo released it on the Tokyo subway, casing 13 deaths and injuring 5,000. In 1953 Royal Air Force engineer Ronald Maddison died during human testing of Sarin at the Porton Down chemical warfare lab in Wiltshire. He had been told the test was to try and find a cure for the common cold. Recovery from exposure to Sarin is possible with prompt injections of atropine, an alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade. NBC News cited sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons against civilians pending orders from Assad. The U.S. has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict. In Brussels yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated concerns that 'an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons' or lose control of them to militant groups. She also said NATO's decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey's southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies. The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted in the Turkish newspaper Sabah as saying that Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them long-range. Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria's civil war battled Wednesday in the streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said. The bloodshed is a sign of just how . vulnerable Lebanon is to getting sucked into the Syrian crisis. The . countries share a porous border and a complex web of political and . sectarian ties that is easily enflamed. The . Lebanese men killed in Syria were Sunni Muslims, like the majority of . rebels trying to overthrow Assad's regime. Assad and much of his inner . circle belong to the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Warning: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated concerns that 'an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons' Deadly: Non-chemical cluster bombs allegedy used by Syrian security forces on the town of Deir Essafir, East Ghouta district in Damascus . The effects of shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's Bustan al-Basha district . The fighting in Lebanon comes at a time of deep uncertainty in Syria, with rebels battling government troops near Assad's seat of power in Damascus. Syria has been careful not to confirm it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people. But as the regime wobbles, there are fears the crisis will keep spiraling outside its borders. Fighting has spilled over into Turkey, Jordan and Israel since the uprising began more than 20 months ago, but Lebanon is particularly susceptible. Seventeen times bigger than Lebanon and four times more populous, Syria has long had powerful allies there, including the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. For much of the past 30 years, Lebanese have lived under Syrian military and political domination. Meanwhile, the unrest inside Syria shows no sign of slowing down. The uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and later escalated into a civil war that the opposition says has killed more than 40,000 people. Besides the violence roiling the capital, Damascus, there was growing speculation about the fate of a top Syrian spokesman who has become a prominent face of the regime. Lebanese security officials have said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi flew Monday from Beirut to London, NBC News reported. But it was not clear whether Makdissi had defected, quit his post or been forced out. Syria has had no official comment on Makdissi, who has defended the regime's crackdown on dissent.
Senior U.S. official says bombs were loaded with deadly nerve gas sarin .
Syrian forces have 60 days to use bombs until chemical mixture expires .
By . Leon Watson . PUBLISHED: . 22:11 EST, 5 December 2012 . | . UPDATED: . 11:37 EST, 6 December 2012 . Syrian forces have mixed chemical weapons and loaded them into bombs ready to use on President Bashar Assad's own people if needed, it was reported today. A senior U.S. official revealed that bombs were loaded with components of the deadly nerve gas sarin. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs until the chemical mixture expires and has to be destroyed. Scroll down for video . Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is believed to be preparing chemical weapons for use against his own people . Sarin disrupts the chemical balance in nerve cells and makes them to lock out in the ‘on’ position. Death usually results from suffocation, caused by the stoppage of the diaphram, the main muscle that controls a person's lungs. The first symptoms are a runny nose and tightness in the chest, followed by coughing, chest pain, confusion and loss of consciousness. Sarin was first developed by the Nazis in the 1930s as a pesticide and is 500 times more deadly than cyanide.One milligram of pure sarin is enough to kill a 10 stone person if absorbed into the skin or inhaled. The most shocking Sarin attack was in 1995 when the Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo released it on the Tokyo subway, casing 13 deaths and injuring 5,000. In 1953 Royal Air Force engineer Ronald Maddison died during human testing of Sarin at the Porton Down chemical warfare lab in Wiltshire. He had been told the test was to try and find a cure for the common cold. Recovery from exposure to Sarin is possible with prompt injections of atropine, an alkaloid extracted from deadly nightshade. NBC News cited sources saying bombs filled with a sarin component have not yet been loaded onto planes, but the Syrian military is prepared to use these chemical weapons against civilians pending orders from Assad. The U.S. has said chemical weapons use would be unacceptable and would trigger greater Western intervention in the conflict. In Brussels yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated concerns that 'an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons' or lose control of them to militant groups. She also said NATO's decision on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey's southern border with Syria sends a message that Ankara is backed by its allies. The missiles are intended only for defensive purposes, she said. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted in the Turkish newspaper Sabah as saying that Syria has about 700 missiles, some of them long-range. Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in Syria's civil war battled Wednesday in the streets of the Lebanese city of Tripoli. The fighting has killed six people and wounded nearly 60 since Monday, security officials said. The bloodshed is a sign of just how . vulnerable Lebanon is to getting sucked into the Syrian crisis. The . countries share a porous border and a complex web of political and . sectarian ties that is easily enflamed. The . Lebanese men killed in Syria were Sunni Muslims, like the majority of . rebels trying to overthrow Assad's regime. Assad and much of his inner . circle belong to the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Warning: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated concerns that 'an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons' Deadly: Non-chemical cluster bombs allegedy used by Syrian security forces on the town of Deir Essafir, East Ghouta district in Damascus . The effects of shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's Bustan al-Basha district . The fighting in Lebanon comes at a time of deep uncertainty in Syria, with rebels battling government troops near Assad's seat of power in Damascus. Syria has been careful not to confirm it has chemical weapons, while insisting it would never use such weapons against its own people. But as the regime wobbles, there are fears the crisis will keep spiraling outside its borders. Fighting has spilled over into Turkey, Jordan and Israel since the uprising began more than 20 months ago, but Lebanon is particularly susceptible. Seventeen times bigger than Lebanon and four times more populous, Syria has long had powerful allies there, including the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. For much of the past 30 years, Lebanese have lived under Syrian military and political domination. Meanwhile, the unrest inside Syria shows no sign of slowing down. The uprising began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and later escalated into a civil war that the opposition says has killed more than 40,000 people. Besides the violence roiling the capital, Damascus, there was growing speculation about the fate of a top Syrian spokesman who has become a prominent face of the regime. Lebanese security officials have said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi flew Monday from Beirut to London, NBC News reported. But it was not clear whether Makdissi had defected, quit his post or been forced out. Syria has had no official comment on Makdissi, who has defended the regime's crackdown on dissent.
revealed that bombs were loaded with components of the deadly nerve gas sarin. Syrian forces have 60 days to use these bombs until the chemical