The U.N. Security Council is holding an emergency meeting to discuss an alleged deadly gas attack in Syria that, if confirmed,
would be the world's worst chemical weapons attack in decades, diplomats said.
Meanwhile, the Chief U.N. chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom is in discussions with the Syrian government over an alleged chemical weapons attack on Wednesday and is following the situation carefully, the United Nations said.
"Professor Sellstrom is in discussions with the Syrian government on all issues pertaining to the alleged use of chemical weapons, including this most recent reported incident," the statement said.
Earlier, a leading Syrian opposition
figure said on Wednesday 1,300 people had been killed in attacks by President
Bashar al-Assad's forces around Damascus in which he said chemical weapons had
been used.
"Today's crimes are not the first time the
regime has used chemical weapons," George Sabra told a news conference in
Istanbul.
"But they constitute a significant turning point
in the regime's operations. This time it was for annihilation rather than
terror."
This as, Syria's military command denied
opposition reports that the army had used chemical weapons against districts
east of Damascus, saying they were a sign of "hysteria and
floundering" by President Bashar al-Assad's opponents.
The denial was issued by an officer
speaking on state television. Information Minister Omran Zoabi said the
allegations were "illogical and fabricated".
Earlier, Syrian regime forces fired intense
artillery and rocket barrages on the eastern suburbs of Damascus amid a fierce
government offensive in what two pro-opposition groups claimed was a
"poisonous gas" attack that killed dozens of people.
In this regard, a Damascus opposition
monitoring group said 494 people had been killed in a gas attack and shelling
by President Assad's forces, citing data from medical centers in the Syrian
capital. Syria has denied reports of chemical weapons being used in Damascus.
The
Damascus Media Office said in a statement 150 bodies were counted in
Hammouriya, 100 in Kfar Batna, 67 in Saqba, 61 in Douma, 76 in Mouadamiya and
40 bodies were collected from Irbib.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said the shelling was intense and hit the capital's eastern
suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma.
The intensive bombardment as well as the
sound of fighter jets could be heard by residents of the Syrian capital
throughout the night and early Wednesday, and gray smoke hung over towns in the
eastern suburbs.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the Observatory chief,
said the activists in the area said "poisonous gas" was fired in
rockets as well as from the air in the attack that killed "dozens of
people."
He added that regime forces were on a wide
offensive on the eastern and western rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.
Another group, the Local Coordination
Committees, said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling.
Such different figures from activists groups are common in the immediate
aftermaths of attacks in Syria, where the government restricts foreign and
domestic reporting.
An activist group in the town of Arbeen
east of Damascus posted on its Facebook page pictures purporting to show rows
of Syrian children, wrapped in white death shrouds, and others, with chests
bared.
There appeared to be very little signs of
blood or physical wounds on the bodies. The photos distributed by activists to
support their claims were consistent with AP reporting of shelling in the area,
though it was not known if the victims died from a poisonous gas attack.
The Syrian government has long denied
claims by the opposition on chemical weapons use, saying rebels fighting to
overthrow President Bashar Assad's government have used such weapons.
Following Wednesday's reports, the
Observatory called upon the U.N. team in Syria and all international
organizations "to visit the stricken areas and to guarantee that medical
and relief supplies reach the people as soon as possible."
It also called for an investigation into
the attack. The U.N team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, is meant to
probe three sites: the village of Khan al-Assal just west of the embattled
northern city of Aleppo and two other locations, which are being kept secret
for security reasons.
Wednesday's claim of the chemical attack,
if confirmed, would be the most serious since the March 19 incident in Khan
al-Assal when at least 30 people were killed.
Assad's regime and the rebels have blamed
each other for that attack. Unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later
exploded into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the
conflict.
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Reuters/AP