UN chemical weapons experts interviewed and took blood samples yesterday from victims of last week’s apparent poison gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of Syria’s capital, after the inspectors themselves survived sniper fire that hit their convoy.
Military chiefs from the United States and its European and Middle Eastern allies met in Jordan for what could be a council of war – should they decide to punish Syria for the worst reported chemical weapons attack in 25 years.
Washington says President Barack Obama is considering options to respond to what the US believes was the mass gassing of civilians by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on August 21.
Many hundreds of people died in Damascus suburbs in what appears to have been the worst chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds to death in 1988.
UN investigators crossed the frontline from the centre of the capital, which remains under Assad’s control, to inspect the Mouadamiya suburb, one of at least four neighbourhoods hit by the poison gas last Wednesday before dawn.
The UN said one vehicle in its convoy was crippled by gunshots fired by “unidentified snipers”. The team continued on after turning back for a replacement car.
Wassim al-Ahmad, an opposition activist, said members of the Free Syrian Army umbrella rebel organisation and the opposition’s Mouadamiya Local Council were accompanying the inspectors on their tour of the suburb.
“The inspectors are now examining victims being treated at a makeshift hospital in Mouadamiya and are taking blood samples from them,” Ahmad said.
Video filmed at the site showed inspectors in black and blue body armour and blue UN helmets walking through a street as curious onlookers came up to watch.
They shook hands with men who appeared to be rebels wearing camouflage vests, and were accompanied by doctors and local residents. The group descended into the basement of a building where they were told injured survivors were being treated below ground to protect them from more shelling. Another video showed an inspector interviewing a patient and taking notes.
Activists say at least 80 people were killed in Mouadamiya when the district was hit with poison gas. Hundreds of people were also killed in three other rebel-held districts – Irbin, Ain Tarma and Jobar.
There was also a plan for the experts to take samples from corpses. The inspectors later returned to their hotel, and within an hour residents reported that the shelling of Mouadamiya resumed.
The decision to proceed with the mission despite coming under attack thwarted an apparent attempt to halt their work before it began.
“The first vehicle of the Chemical Weapons Investigation Team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer zone area,” the UN said in a statement.
Syrian state TV blamed rebel “terrorists” for the shooting. The opposition blamed it on pro-Assad militiamen.
John Kerry on Syria
US Secretary of State John Kerry, in a forceful statement late yesterday, said all nations must stand up for accountability on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The information so far, including videos and accounts from the ground, indicate “that chemical weapons were used in Syria. Moreover, we know that the Syrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons,” Kerry said.