Syrian regime under pressure to let UN access chemical attack site

DAMASCUS: Syria on Thursday came under intense pressure to allow UN inspectors to visit the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus which the opposition says left hundreds dead and provoked revulsion around the world.
A US official cited by the Wall Street Journal said there were “strong indications” that the government had carried out a chemical weapons attack, after the opposition reported more than 1,300 people killed by poisonous gases in rebel-held towns east of Damascus on Wednesday.
Damascus has vehemently denied it unleashed chemical weapons, with a high ranking security source saying that to do so while a UN inspections team is working inside the country would be “political suicide.”
“All analysts say that it is not in our current interest to use chemical weapons while the commission is on the ground,” he added.
France said it is seeking a reaction with “force” if allegations by the National Coalition, the main opposition group, of a massacre involving chemical weapons are confirmed.
“If it is proven, France’s position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told BFM-TV.
There has been no immediate independent confirmation of the attack but videos and photographs posted online by activists showed scenes of people foaming at the mouth and of bodies laid out in long lines. In one video posted on YouTube, children are seen receiving first aid in a field hospital, notably oxygen to help them breathe. Doctors appear to be trying to resuscitate unconscious children.
Another video showed what activists said was a case of hysteria following a chemical strike in the eastern suburbs. The authenticity of the videos has not immediately been verified.
If confirmed, the attack would be the largest scale use of chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces attacked the Kurdish town of Halabja in 1988.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that regime forces on Thursday bombed and shelled a number of rebel zones around Damascus where the Coalition alleged the attacks had taken place the previous day.
The Britain-based watchdog, which uses names and videos to document killings in the Syrian war, gave a toll of 170 people killed on Wednesday — 71 men, 34 women, 25 children and 40 rebel fighters.
Western governments demanded immediate access to the sites of the alleged attacks for a team of UN inspectors already in Syria to probe previous allegations of chemical weapons strikes.
The head of the UN inspection mission, Aake Sellstroem, was in talks with Damascus “on all issues pertaining to the alleged use of chemical weapons, including this most recent reported incident,” a UN statement said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest demanded the inspectors be given “immediate access to witnesses and affected individuals” and “the ability to examine and collect physical evidence without any interference or manipulation from the Syrian government.”