Pro-government forces in Syria have seized the key border town of Qusayr after a year of rebel control. Qusayr has seen intense clashes over the past two weeks as fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joined forces aligned with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Meanwhile, France is claiming tests on chemical samples taken from Syria prove the deadly nerve agent sarin gas has been used several times during the country’s more than two-year conflict. But France did not give any details of where or by whom the poison gas was used. At a NATO summit in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen advised caution on France’s claim.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: “As a matter of principle, we never comment on intelligence reports. But needless to say, that if chemical weapons have been used, we strongly condemn such acts, whoever might have used them. There’s not so far much clarity about detailed circumstances.”