A great article by the Guardian on all aspects of this situation.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/may/13/1

I read in some other sources as well that it is a damn pipeline not chemical attacks.

"In 2003, just a month after the commencement of the Iraq War, US and Israeli government sources told The Guardian of plans to "build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel" bypassing Syria."