BEIRUT (AP)
-- Syrian anti-government activists accused the regime of carrying out a
toxic gas attack that killed at least 100 people, including many
children, during intense artillery and rocket barrages Wednesday on the
eastern suburbs of Damascus, part of a fierce government offensive in
the area.
The attack coincided with the visit
by a 20-member U.N. chemical weapons team to Syria to investigate three
sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred over the past
year. Their presence raises questions about why the regime - which
called the claims of the attack Wednesday "absolutely baseless" - would
employ chemical agents at this time.
Shocking
images emerged from the purported attack, showing pale, lifeless bodies
of children lined up on floors of makeshift hospitals and others with
oxygen masks on their faces as they were attended to by paramedics.
There was no visible blood or wounds on their skin.
The
reported death toll Wednesday would make it the deadliest alleged
chemical attack in Syria's civil war. There were conflicting reports,
however, as to what exactly transpired. The Syrian government and armed
forces called the activists' claims "absolutely baseless."
France's
president demanded the United Nations be granted access to the site of
Wednesday's alleged attack, while Britain's foreign secretary said if
the claims are verified it would mark "a shocking escalation of the use
of chemical weapons in Syria."
The Egypt-based Arab League condemned the "horrific attack" against civilians and called for an investigation.
The
heavy shelling earlier in the day pounded the capital's eastern suburbs
of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma, according to the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. The intensive
bombardment as well as the sound of fighter jets could be heard by
residents of the Syrian capital throughout the night and early
Wednesday, and gray smoke hung over towns in the eastern suburbs.
Observatory
director Rami Abdul-Rahman said the activists in the area said
"poisonous gas" was fired in rockets as well as from the air in the
attack. He added that he has documented at least 100 deaths, but said it
was no clear whether the victims died from shelling or toxic gas.
Another
group, the Local Coordination Committees, said hundreds of people were
killed or injured in the shelling and the Syrian National Coalition,
Syria's main opposition group in exile, put the number at 1,300. The
group said it was basing its claim on accounts and photographs by
activists on the ground.
Such different
figures from activists groups are common in the immediate aftermaths of
attacks in Syria, where the government restricts foreign and domestic
reporting.
Syria is said to have one of the
world's largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, including mustard gas
and the nerve agent sarin. The government refuses to confirm or denies
it possesses such weapons.
In June, the U.S.
said it had conclusive evidence that Assad's regime used chemical
weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack
Obama called a "red line," prompting a U.S. decision to begin arming
rebel groups, although that has not happened yet.
An
opposition activist and a pharmacist in the town of Arbeen who
identified himself as Abu Ahmad, which is not his real name, said he
attended to dozens of injured people in a field hospital after the
shelling on Zamalka and Ein Tarma early Wednesday, and said many were
moved to Arbeen.
He said bodies of 63 of the dead had indications of a chemical weapons attack but he could not confirm this.
"Their
mouths were foaming, their pupils were constricted, and those who were
brought in while still alive could not draw their breaths and died
subsequently," he told The Associated Press via Skype. "The skin around
their eyes and noses was greyish."
Abu Ahmad,
who declined to give his real name fearing for his own safety, said he
based his belief that the symptoms could indicate a chemical weapon
attack because he had attended to two victims two months ago brought in
from Jobar, a neighborhood in Damascus, who had the same symptoms and
were believed to have been injured in a chemical attack.
Activists
in Zamalka told Abu Ahmed that an additional 200 people died in that
town on Wednesday. Arbeen is 5 kilometers to the northeast of Damascus.
The Syrian government denied the reports of Wednesday's chemical weapons attack.
"They
are an attempt to divert the U.N. commission on chemical weapons from
carrying out its mission," the state-run SANA news agency said, quoting
an unnamed government official, as is its standard practice.
The
head of the U.N. team in Syria to investigate previous claims of
alleged chemical attacks said he wants to look into the latest claims.
Speaking
to Swedish broadcaster SVT, Ake Sellstrom said the high numbers of
killed and wounded being reported "sound suspicious."
"It looks like something we need to look into," Sellstrom, who is Swedish, was quoted as saying.
He
said a formal request from a member state would have to go through the
U.N. channels and Syria would need to agree - and there is no guarantee
that it would.
France said they will ask the United Nations to visit the site of Wednesday's alleged attack.
President
Francois Hollande, speaking at a regular Cabinet meeting, said the
latest allegations "require verification and confirmation," according to
government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
Hollande would ask the U.N. to go to the site "to shed full light" on the allegations.
The
Syrian government has long denied claims by the opposition on chemical
weapons use, saying rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar
Assad's government have used such weapons.
Following
Wednesday's reports, the Observatory called upon the U.N. team in Syria
and all international organizations "to visit the stricken areas and to
guarantee that medical and relief supplies reach the people as soon as
possible." It also called for an investigation into the attack.
Mohammed
Saeed, an activist in the area, told The Associated Press via Skype
that hundreds of dead and injured people were rushed to six makeshift
hospitals in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.
"This
is a massacre by chemical weapons," said Saeed. "The visit by the U.N.
team is a joke ... Bashar is using the weapons and telling the world
that he does not care."
An activist group in
Arbeen posted on its Facebook page pictures purporting to show rows of
Syrian children, wrapped in white death shrouds, and others, with chests
bared. There appeared to be very little signs of blood or physical
wounds on the bodies.
An amateur video showed
four children on the floor of a makeshift hospital, apparently
unconscious, as a doctor is seen giving them some sort of shots. A bit
later, a child starts shaking slowly.
"Is this
baby girl a terrorist," a man could be heard saying. "God willing, we
will bring his regime down. He (Assad) is killing Sunni children in
front of the whole world."
"Oh, Bashar, you son of a dog," says another man. "We will come and get you in your place."
Other
videos show bodies of children lined on the floor of a room, showing no
signs of life. Very few of them showed signs of blood or physical
wounds on their skin.
The photos and videos
distributed by activists to support their claims were consistent with AP
reporting of shelling in the area, though it was not known if the
victims died from a poisonous gas attack.
Sellstrom's
team of U.N. experts is meant to probe three sites: the village of Khan
al-Assal just west of the embattled northern city of Aleppo and two
other locations, which are being kept secret for security reasons.
Wednesday's
claim of the chemical attack, if confirmed, would be the most serious
since the March 19 incident in Khan al-Assal when at least 30 people
were killed. Assad's regime and the rebels have blamed each other for
that attack.
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.
---
AP
journalists Amer Biblawi in New York, Sarah El Deep in Cairo, Malin
Rising in Stockholm and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this
report.
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