UK, US mull plan to seize Syria's chemical weapons London: British and American military commanders have drawn up plans to seize or destroy Syria's chemical weapons if the country slides into further chaos. They fear that nerve agents and chemical weapons held by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad's regime may fall into terrorists' hands if the government collapses. Senior officers have also held talks on a range of "rogue state" contingency plans to prevent chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from being seized by terrorists, which they fear could also happen if Pakistan or North Korea's regimes were to fall. Iran, which according to one senior British source is "bent on developing nuclear weapons," is also causing great concern to Western governments. British intelligence believes that Syria has amassed an extensive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction , including nerve agents such as Sarin, and mustard gas. They have not been used and are considered to be well guarded by Syrian security forces. But militant Islamist groups are inside Syria fighting against the government and would be perfectly placed to raid stockpiles, intelligence sources have said. They said the most likely option to prevent the weapons falling into the hands of extremists would be to destroy stockpiles with air strikes. Alternatives include the use of special forces and troops to secure weapon sites in Syria if the government collapses. An RAF regiment unit called the Defence Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Wing, based at Winterbourne Gunner, Wiltshire, has been told that it should be prepared to work alongside the SAS in securing such sites in Syria at short notice. Last week, a US-based body known as the Strategic Working Group began rehearsing how stockpiles would be secured in the Middle East and the Pacific in the event of an international emergency. The group is composed of personnel from the US military as well as British and Australian officers and government officials. Officers tested a variety of plans at a classified war gaming session that focused on a failed state that had lost control of its stockpiles, forcing the US and other countries to intervene. The Sunday Telegraph