REPORT: US says unable to conclusively say chemical weapons used in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces bombarded rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Thursday, activists said, keeping up pressure on the besieged region a day after the opposition accused the army of gassing hundreds in a chemical weapons attack.                

Opposition activists said men, women and children were killed as they slept.                         

A Syrian opposition spokesman also said that bodies are still being discovered, stressing that the death toll will rise.                    

"We expect the number (of dead) to grow because we just discovered a neighborhood in Zamalka where there are houses full of dead people," Syrian National Coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh said.
With the death toll estimated between 500 and 1,300, what would be the world's most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s prompted an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.

The council did not explicitly demand a UN investigation of the incident, although it said "clarity" was needed and welcomed UN chief Ban Ki-moon's calls for a prompt investigation by the UN inspection team in Syria, led by Ake Sellstrom.
   
The opposition said Assad's forces fired rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held eastern Damascus suburbs, which are part of what is known as the Ghouta.

The area is an expanse of old farmland dotted with large built up areas inhabited mostly by members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority that have been at the forefront of the uprising against Assad's Alawite rule.
   
In Ghouta on Thursday, rockets fired from multiple launchers and heavy mortar rounds hit the neighborhoods of Jobar and Zamalka, which are on the eastern outskirts of the capital, the activists said.
  
Rockets also hit the nearby district of Qaboun to the north, where rebel fighters have repelled attempts by loyalist forces to overrun the area, and the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp area to the south, the activists added.
   
Speaking from Ghouta, activist Khaled Amer said explosions from rockets hitting Zamalka were being heard. In Jobar, a Damascus neighborhood only 3 km (2 miles) from the historic center of the ancient capital, explosions were heard at an army fortification and another compound housing tanks, apparently from a rebel attack on the facilities.
   
Fadi al-Shami of the Tarhrir al-Sham Brigade, which operates in the eastern Ghouta region, said scattered fighting was taking place along the Jobar-Zamalka axis and that opposition forces have moved closer to loyalist lines, partly to be in safer positions in case of another chemical attack.

On wednesday the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General said that allegations of chemical weapons use outside the Syrian capital represented a "serious escalation, with grave humanitarian consequences and human consequences."

The Security Council backed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's determination to ensure a "thorough investigation" of the alleged attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus.

Later on Thursday, the United Nations issued a statement whereby it said that the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked the Syrian government on Thursday to allow UN inspectors to investigate the latest alleged gas attack and grant them access to the site in the suburbs of Damascus.


Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said the allegations were "illogical and fabricated." President Bashar al-Assad's officials have said they would never use poison gas against Syrians. The United States and European allies believe Assad's forces have used small amounts of sarin before, hence the current UN visit.
   
Immediate international action is likely to be limited, with the divisions among major powers that have crippled efforts to quell 2-1/2 years of civil war still much in evidence.
   
Russia backed up Syrian government denials by saying it looked like a rebel "provocation" to discredit Assad.
 
US President Barack Obama has made the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces a "red line" that in June triggered more US aid to the rebels. But previous, smaller and disputed cases of their deployment have not brought the all-out military intervention rebel leaders have sought to break a stalemate.

Images, including some by freelance photographers supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies - some of them small children - laid on the floor of a clinic with no visible signs of injury. Some showed people with foam around their mouths.
   
The United States and others said it had no independent confirmation that chemical weapons had been used. The UN chief, Ban, said the head of the inspection team in Damascus was already discussing the latest claims with the government.
 
Meanwhile, France said that the international community would need to respond with force if allegations that the Syrian government was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians proved true.
   
For his part, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle demanded that Syria grant full access to United Nations chemicals weapons experts to investigate allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an attack on civilians.
      
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday "all red lines" had been crossed in Syria and criticised international inaction after the opposition accused Syrian government forces of gassing hundreds in a chemical weapons attack.

Britain said on Thursday its first priority was to verify the facts surrounding a reported chemical weapons attack in Syria, but said it could not rule out any option to end the bloodshed there.
   
""We believe a political solution is the best way to end the bloodshed," a spokesman from the British Foreign Office told Reuters. "However, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have said many times we cannot rule out any option ... that might save innocent lives in Syria."

  
REUTERS


To watch the full report, please click on the video above