BEIRUT (AP)
-- Syrian troops and opposition fighters clashed Friday during fierce
battles in suburbs of the Syrian capital where the opposition claimed a
chemical weapons attack this week killed more than 100 people, activists
said. Also Friday, the Lebanese government said its troops captured a
truck carrying gas masks near the Syrian border.
The
government offensive entered its third day and came as U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Syrian government to allow a
U.N. team now in Damascus to swiftly investigate the alleged chemical
weapons attack.
U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo
del Buey said the U.N. chief has been in touch with world leaders since
Wednesday and is sending U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane to Damascus
to press for an investigation.
Syrian
opposition figures and activists have reported death tolls from
Wednesday's attack ranging from 136 to 1,300. But if confirmed, even the
most conservative tally would make it the deadliest chemical attack in
Syria's civil war.
In an interview broadcast
Friday on CNN, U.S. President Barack Obama called the possible chemical
attack in Syria a "big event of grave concern" and said, while pending
confirmation, the event was "very troublesome" and was going to "require
America's attention."
A 20-member U.N. team
led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom has been in
Damascus since Sunday to investigate three sites where past chemical
weapons attacks allegedly occurred: the village of Khan al-Assal just
west of the embattled northern city of Aleppo and two other locations
kept secret for security reasons.
Deputy Prime
Minister Qadri Jamil told The Associated Press Thursday he was
personally in favor of a fair, transparent international delegation to
investigate the most recent incident in Ghouta. But he said that would
require a new agreement between the government and the U.N. and that the
conditions for such a delegation would need to be studied.
In
neighboring Lebanon, the army said in a statement that troops have
captured a truck with "large amounts" of gas masks in the southeastern
village of Kfeir near the border with Syria.
A
Lebanese army general said an investigation is under way about the
masks and could not say whether they were being taken to Syria. He spoke
on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The
U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria-based activist
Mohammed Abdullah said the fighting, air raids and shelling occurred in
different parts of Damascus suburbs Friday.
"Clashes are almost on all fronts," said Abdullah, who is based in the Damascus suburb of Saqba.
"Zamalka is destroyed," he said referring to one of the areas that was allegedly struck with chemical weapons on Wednesday.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry called for an independent probe by U.N. experts into the alleged attack.
The
statement released on Friday said that Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry had discussed the situation by telephone
on Thursday, and concluded that they had a "mutual interest" in calling
for the U.N. investigation.
The statement said
Russia had called for Syrian President Bashar Assad's embattled
government to cooperate with an investigation, but questions remained
about the willingness of the opposition, "which must secure safe access
of the mission to the location of the incident."
Russia has been one of Assad's key allies in the international arena.
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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