United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday deplored the use of chemical weapons in Syria and demanded that those responsible are held accountable.
Ban addressed the 193-member General Assembly on the final report issued by UN inspectors who examined seven alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
They concluded that chemical weapons were probably used in four locations, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile.
"I note with deep concern that the team collected evidence and information corroborating allegations that chemical weapons were used on several occasions at multiple sites against both civilians and military targets," said Ban.
The inspectors' limited mandate authorized them to determine whether chemical weapons were used but barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks.
"I think it was a wise decision that we shouldn't try to go into the attribution and try to pursue the investigation into attribution," said Ake Sellstrom, head of the UN fact-finding mission in Syria.
"We are there to find facts, we are on a fact finding mission and these facts that we report upon could be used by others possibly. Others could put these facts in some sort of connection, could have other information, and others could pursue the issue about perpetrator or attribution."
Angela Kane, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said the inspection report could be used to pursue who was responsible for the chemical attacks but that decision is "really up to member states."
Sellstrom said he was "quite happy" with what was achieved during his team's mission.
"We have probably triggered the Syrian government to give up their chemical weapons. I'm quite happy with that," said Sellstrom.
The confirmed use of the deadly nerve agent sarin on 21 August in the Ghouta area of Damascus, and the threat of possible American military action, led to a US-Russian agreement to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014 and Syrian agreement to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The process of getting Syrian chemicals that can be used to make weapons out of the country is currently under way.
Syria activists: Talks ongoing to free seized nuns
Two Syrian activists say that the government is negotiating with rebels to secure the release of a group of nuns seized by opposition fighters.
A spokesman for the rebel brigade al-Habib al-Moustafa said Saturday that fighters want the Syrian government to release hundreds of imprisoned female activists in exchange for the 12 captive nuns.
Spokesman Abu Nidal said he wasn't involved in negotiations, but was relaying information from other fighters.
The negotiations were also confirmed by a prominent Syrian opposition activist who requested anonymity, as he was discussing talks conducted by other parties. He said negotiations began immediately after the Greek Orthodox nuns were seized from their convent of Mar Takla north of Damascus on Dec. 6 after rebels overran the area.
On the field:
A rebel commander has frozen to death due to the biting cold brought by a snowstorm that has swept Syria this week, a monitoring group said on Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that "the body of a rebel commander who was on his way from Idlib to Homs has been found, noting that he died during the snowstorm.
“There were no signs of gunshots or other wounds. The body was frozen,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
Abdel Rahman added that the unnamed commander was a member of the Islamist Suqur al-Sham brigades.
This as, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said regime troops made slight advances in Adra, northeast of Damascus while clashes are ongoing.
AP/LBCI