U.N. in talks with Syria over alleged chemical attack

(Reuters) - Chief U.N. chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom is in discussions with the Syrian government over an alleged chemical weapons attack on Wednesday and is following the situation carefully, the United Nations said.
The United States, Britain and France will ask U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later on Wednesday to open an investigation into what may be one of the deadliest incidents of Syria's two-year-old civil war, U.N. diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

UN to hold emergency meeting on Syria attack

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations Wednesday on the latest alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he is determined to ensure a "thorough investigation" of all reported incidents.

U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the secretary-general is "shocked" at Wednesday's alleged use of chemical weapons on the eastern suburbs of Damascus. Syrian anti-government activists accused President Bashar Assad's regime of carrying out a toxic gas attack that killed at least 100 people, including many children as they slept.

Arab League chief asks UN to look into report of Syria gas attack

BEIRUT |Aug 21 (Reuters) - Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby called on Wednesday for United Nations inspectors to immediately investigate reports of a chemical attack near the Syrian capital that activists say has killed more than 200 people, Egypt's state news agency said.

"The secretary general said in a statement he was surprised this deplorable crime would happen during the visit of a team of international investigators with the United Nations who are already tasked with investigating chemical weapons use," the official news agency MENA said.
"He called on the inspectors to head immediately to the eastern Ghouta (suburb of Damascus) to determine what happened." (Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

U.N. chemical arms inspector in talks with Syria on new attack

UNITED NATIONS |(Reuters) - Chief U.N. chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom is in discussions with the Syrian government over an alleged chemical weapons attack on Wednesday and is following the situation carefully, the United Nations said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was shocked by the report of the alleged attack, his press office said in a statement
"Professor Sellstrom is in discussions with the Syrian government on all issues pertaining to the alleged use of chemical weapons, including this most recent reported incident," the statement said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)

White House calls for U.N. probe of alleged Syria gas attack

WASHINGTON |(Reuters) - The White House expressed alarm on Wednesday about reports of a massive deadly chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces and called urgently for a United Nations investigation into the incident.

Syria's opposition accused President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists of gassing many hundreds of people - as many as 1,300 according to on report - in what would, if confirmed, be the world's worst chemical weapons attack in decades.

Almost 30,000 Syrian refugees enter Iraq since Thursday: U.N.

GENEVA |(Reuters) - An estimated 29,000 Syrian refugees have entered northern Iraq since Thursday in one of the largest crossings in Syria's two-year-old conflict and the influx is continuing, the United Nations said on Monday.

Syrians fleeing fighting in Aleppo and other embattled parts of northern Syria began pouring into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq last Thursday, taking advantage of a new pontoon bridge along the largely closed border, it said.
"It is a massive movement of people," said Dan McNorton, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UN wants 'full access' for weapon experts in Syria

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling for U.N. experts to have "full access" to the sites of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.

He told reporters Monday access must include interviews and examination of witnesses, victims, medical personnel and post-mortem examinations.

The U.N. team arrived in Damascus over the weekend and will investigate three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred.

UNHCR: Syrian refugees flooding into Iraq

More than 15,000 civilians flowed across border into Iraq�s Kurdish region since Thursday, refugee agency says.

Thousands of Syrians have flowed across the border into Iraq’s Kurdish region to escape battles in their homeland, the UN refugee agency has said.
More than 15,000 refugees have crossed into Iraq in the latest influx since Thursday, with more expected to follow, UNHCR said.

U.N. chemical weapons inspectors to start work in Syria on Monday

DAMASCUS |(Reuters) - A team of U.N. chemical weapons experts have arrived in Damascus and will start work on Monday to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war.

UN chemical arms experts arrive in Syrian capital

By ALBERT AJI
Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- After months of drawn-out negotiations, United Nations experts arrived in Damascus on Sunday to begin their investigation into the purported use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war.

The rebels, along with the U.S. and other Western powers, have accused President Bashar Assad's regime of carrying out the alleged chemical attacks, while the Syrian government and Russia have blamed the opposition. Nearly six months after the weapons of mass destruction were first allegedly employed on the battlefield, definitive proof remains elusive.

U.N. chemical weapons team to visit Syria on Sunday

(Reuters) - A U.N. mission to investigate alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war tentatively plans to enter the country on Sunday, officials said on Friday.
The team, consisting of weapons experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, plans to look into claims of use of sarin gas and other toxic nerve agents.

UN chemical weapons team departing soon for Syria

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- After months of negotiations, the United Nations announced Wednesday that U.N. experts will depart imminently for Syria to investigate alleged chemical weapons use.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon gave the green light after the Syrian government accepted arrangements for the investigation.

The team is expected to visit three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred, but diplomats and chemical weapons experts have raised doubts about whether they will find anything since the alleged incidents took place months ago.

The mandate for the investigation is also limited: The team will report on whether chemical weapons were used, and if so which ones, but it will not determine the responsibility for an attack. This has led some commentators to question the value of the investigation.

President Bashar Assad's government initially asked the U.N. to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack on March 19 on the village of Khan al Assal outside the embattled city of Aleppo, which was captured by the rebels last month. The government and rebels blame each other for the purported attack which killed at least 30 people.

Britain, France and the U.S. followed with allegations of chemical weapons use in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere. U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council last month that the U.N. has received 13 reports of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.

On June 13, the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against opposition forces. That crossed what President Barack Obama had called a "red line" and prompted a U.S. decision to send arms and ammunition to the opposition.

But agreement on a U.N. investigation was delayed for months because Syria wanted to limit the probe to Khan al-Assal and the secretary-general, backed by the U.S., Britain and France, insisted on a broader investigation.

The U.N. gave approval for the probe on July 31 following an "understanding" reached with Syria during a visit to Damascus by U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane and Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, the team's leader, that three sites where chemical weapons were allegedly used would be investigated.

One site is Khan al Assal, but the locations of the other two incidents are being kept secret for safety reasons.

For the past two weeks, the Syrian government and the U.N. have been trying to agree on arrangements for the investigation.

The U.N. team completed preparations for the visit over the weekend in The Hague, Netherlands, but its departure was delayed because of differences over details of the investigation.

Following Wednesday's agreement, U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said "the departure of the team is now imminent," but he provided no specific date.

Under the agreement with Syria, the team will remain in the country for "up to 14 days, extendable upon mutual consent" to "conduct activities, "including on-site visits," del Buey said.

He said U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is pleased that agreement has been reached "to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission."

The secretary-general believes an effective investigation of allegations can serve as "an important deterrent" against the use of chemical weapons, del Buey said.

"Our goal remains a fully independent and impartial inquiry," he said.

Del Buey said "the overwhelming support of the international community for this investigation makes clear that the use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances would constitute an outrageous crime."

The investigation team includes about 10 experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague, and the World Health Organization, based in Geneva.

Del Buey said Ban expressed appreciation to the Syrian government for its cooperation and to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its support of the mission.

U.N. says still negotiating with Syria on chemical weapons inquiry

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS | (Reuters) - U.N. experts are ready to visit Syria to investigate claims of chemical weapons use during the country's two-year civil war, but a deal has not yet been reached with the Syrian government on safety assurances, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The devil is in the details and the details are being worked out," U.N. spokesman Eduardo del Buey told reporters.
It has been nearly two weeks since the United Nations said the Syrian government had agreed to let the U.N. team of experts travel to three sites where chemical weapons are reported to have been used. One, Khan al-Assal in Aleppo, is where the Syrian government says rebels used chemical weapons in March.
The other two locations to be visited have not yet been identified. The United Nations said it has received 13 reports of possible chemical weapons use - one from Syria's government and the rest mainly from Britain, France and the United States.
The Syrian government and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both have denied it.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom in March to lead a U.N. inquiry into the claims, but diplomatic wrangling and concerns over safety have prevented Sellstrom and his team of experts from entering Syria.
The U.N. inquiry will only try to establish whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them. Sellstrom's team is made up of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Health Organization.
"Over the weekend, the investigation team ... completed all necessary logistical arrangements for its visit to Syria," the United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday.
But U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, was still negotiating with the Syrian government on "the modalities essential for cooperation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission," the world body said.
"Once the government of Syria confirms its acceptance of the modalities, the mission will depart without delay," the United Nations said.
Rebels seized Khan al-Assal from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces last month. The opposition Syrian National Coalition has written to Ban saying they were ready to cooperate with the chemical weapons inquiry and "welcome U.N. investigators into all territories under our control."
The United Nations has been demanding unfettered access in Syria to conduct the chemical weapons investigation.
Syria is one of seven countries that has not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. Western countries believe it has stockpiles of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict.
More than 1.9 million Syrians have fled the country - two-thirds of those since the start of the year - and more than 4.2 million people have been internally displaced, the United Nations has said. Most of those in need are women and children.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Jackie Frank and Cynthia Osterman)

Departure of UN chemical experts to Syria delayed

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. chemical weapons experts have delayed a trip to Syria because the United Nations and the Syrian government haven't agreed on arrangements for the investigation of alleged chemical weapons use, a spokesman for the world body said Tuesday.

U.N. disarmament chief Angela Kane was continuing consultations with the Syrian government "with a view to reaching agreement as soon as possible on the modalities essential for cooperation to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission," U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.

Del Buey refused to say what specific issues were holding up the team's departure.

"Obviously the devil is in the details, and the details are being worked out," he said.

The expert team, led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden, completed preparations for the visit over the weekend, del Buey said.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky had said on Aug. 6 that preparations were expected to be completed "within the next days, following which the date of the mission in Syria will be announced."

Del Buey said that "once the government of Syria confirms its acceptance of the modalities, the mission will depart without delay."

The U.N. gave approval for the probe on July 31 following an "understanding" reached during meetings in Damascus between the Syrian government and the U.N., represented by Kane and Sellstrom, that three sites where chemical weapons were allegedly used would be investigated.

The team is expected to visit Khan al Assal, a village on the southwestern outskirts of the embattled city of Aleppo which was captured by the rebels in late July. The government and rebels blame each other for a purported chemical attack on the village on March 19 that killed at least 30 people.

The experts are expected to investigate two other incidents whose locations are being kept secret for safety and security reasons.

U.N. Mideast envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council last month that the U.N. has received 13 reports of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.

The investigation team includes about 10 experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague, and the World Health Organization, based in Geneva. Its mandate is to report on whether chemical weapons were used, and if so which ones, but not to determine the responsibility for an attack.

President Bashar Assad's government initially asked the U.N. to investigate the Khan al Assal incident. Britain, France and the U.S. followed with allegations of chemical weapons use in Homs, Damascus and elsewhere.

The July 31 announcement of an investigation ended more than four months of behind-the-scenes talks, with Syria trying to limit the probe to Khan al-Assal and the U.S., Britain and France pressing for a broader investigation.

U.N. aid chief sends Security Council ideas to ease aid distribution in Syria

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS 

(Reuters) - U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos has sent the U.N. Security Council a wish list of ways aid can be better distributed in Syria that includes allowing cross-border deliveries, humanitarian pauses in fighting and advance notice of military offensives.
In a confidential document given to the 15 council members and obtained by Reuters on Tuesday, Amos outlined 30 potential "measures that could be taken to address current humanitarian challenges in Syria and neighboring countries," and which could be the basis for a U.N. resolution.
The Security Council has been considering a possible Syria aid resolution for several months, but because issues like cross-border access could spark a showdown between Russia and western states, some diplomats said such a battle was likely to be left until after a possible Syria peace conference in Geneva.
But attempts to organize a "Geneva II" summit to revive a political transition plan agreed in the Swiss city in June 2012 have so far been futile, and U.N. diplomats say it is increasingly unlikely it will take place anytime soon.
Amos wrote that while "a genuine political process is urgently needed to avert a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Syria and neighboring countries," there were several measures that could be taken in the meantime.
These included:
- "Systematic and timely notification by the parties prior to military offensives, so as to allow the evacuation/safe passage of civilians, particularly the wounded and the sick people seeking medical assistance in safer areas."
- "Agreement on modalities to implement humanitarian pauses to allow the passage of humanitarian convoys to the most affected areas, the provision of assistance to those in need and the evacuation of the sick and wounded."
- "Cross-border assistance as required by operational necessity and taking into account work already undertaken from inside Syria."
The United Nations says that at least 100,000 people have been killed during more than two years of civil war in Syria that has forced 1.9 million Syrians to flee - mainly to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and the Kurdish region of northern Iraq - while more than 4.2 million people have been internally displaced.
A U.N. diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the measures suggested by Amos, who is head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as "very ambitious."
"This is basically intended to trigger work from the council on this issue. But I think the expectations are too high in this document," he said. "Cross-border access is the most ambitious. And do you really expect the Syrian government to announce their offensives?"
LONGTIME DEADLOCK
The Security Council has long-been deadlocked on how to deal with the Syrian conflict.
Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and China have used their veto power three times to stop Security Council action against Assad backed by the remaining three veto powers - the United States, Britain and France.
"We'll see how things will proceed," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on Tuesday of talks on a possible Syria aid resolution, although he was annoyed that the potential move by the council had been made public. "It's not a good start."
On cross-border access Churkin said: "You should ask the Syrian government ... this is their country, if they accept cross-border access I will have no problem with that."
U.N. officials have said the Syrian government has refused to allow aid access across rebel-controlled borders and that violence, bureaucracy and dozens of checkpoints meant aid was barely trickling through to those in need.
Diplomats said the Assad government's opposition to cross-border humanitarian access in areas controlled by rebels was over concerns that weapons could be smuggled more easily to opposition forces.
Assad controls much of southern and central Syria, while rebels hold northern areas near the Turkish border and along the Euphrates valley towards Iraq. The northeast corner is now an increasingly autonomous Kurdish region.
The possible measures suggested by Amos to boost aid access in Syria were sent to Security Council members on Monday.
In a public briefing to the Security Council on April 18, Amos painted a dire picture about families burned in their homes, people bombed waiting for bread, children tortured, raped and murdered and cities reduced to rubble.
That bleak assessment motivated the otherwise paralyzed council to reach a rare agreement on a non-binding statement that demanding an end to the escalating violence and condemning human rights abuses by all sides.
The statement also "underlined the need to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance through the most effective ways, including where appropriate across borders in accordance with guiding principles of humanitarian assistance."
(Editing by Philip Barbara)

U.N. finalizing Syria visit by chemical weapons experts

UNITED NATIONS
(Reuters) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it is finalizing the legal and logistical details of a mission by U.N. inspectors to Syria to investigate claims of chemical weapons attacks.
"It is anticipated that these preparations will be completed within the next days, following which the date of the mission in Syria will be announced," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's press office said in a statement.
The United Nations said last week the Syrian government had agreed to let a team of experts travel to three sites where chemical weapons are reported to have been used. One, Khan al-Assal in Aleppo, is where the Syrian government says rebels used chemical weapons in March.
Rebels seized Khan al-Assal from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces last month. The Syrian National Coalition, the rebels' leadership group, wrote to Ban last week to reiterate that they were ready to cooperate with the chemical weapons inquiry and "welcome U.N. investigators into all territories under our control."
The other two locations to be visited have not yet been identified. The United Nations said it has received 13 reports of possible chemical weapons use - one from Syria's government and the rest mainly from Britain, France and the United States.
The Syrian government and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical weapons, and both have denied it.
The U.N. inquiry, led by Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, will only try to establish whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them. His team is made up of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Health Organization.
The U.N. statement said the team has "reassembled in The Hague, where they are now completing their preparations prior to their departure to Syria."
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Syrian coalition urges UN to probe mass abuse

Opposition also says it is willing to be investigated two days after UN denounces alleged massacre in northern town.

Syria's main opposition group has urged the United Nations to probe "numerous massacres" which they say were committed by President Bashar al-Assad's forces during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

The National Coalition also said on Sunday that it was ready to cooperate in any independent investigation into alleged crimes committed by opposition forces.

The Coalition's call comes two days after UN rights chief Navi Pillay said a reported mass execution of Syrian soldiers taken captive by rebels in the northern town of Khan al-Assal should be investigated.

"Assad has violated international humanitarian and human rights laws. He has committed crimes against humanity by using ballistic missiles, toxic gas, fixed-wing aircraft and chemical weapons," the opposition said in a statement.

"Assad's forces have summarily executed civilians, burned them, and targeted towns, villages, schools, hospitals, shelters, and places of worship across Syria," it added.

'Deeply shocking'

Pillay said on Friday that the events during fighting for control of the town of Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province were "deeply shocking".

Video footage shot by rebels and reports provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights suggest dozens of members of regime forces were executed.

"There needs to be a thorough independent investigation to establish whether war crimes have been committed. And those responsible for such crimes should be brought to justice," Pillay said.

"Opposition forces should not think they are immune from prosecution. They must adhere to their responsibilities under international law," she added.

The opposition said it was ready to cooperate in any independent probe. The Coalition "reiterates its full commitment to international conventions, emphasising that those who violate international human rights law must be brought to justice regardless of who they might be", the statement said.

The group "further expresses its readiness to cooperate with all independent organisations to conduct impartial investigations into the war crimes committed across Syria."[AFP]

U.N. rights chief calls for investigation into Syria massacre

GENEVA |

(Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday she wanted an independent investigation into an apparent massacre carried out by Syrian opposition forces in the town of Khan al-Assal.
"Based on the analysis by my team to date, we believe armed opposition groups in one incident - documented by a video - executed at least 30 individuals, the majority of whom appeared to be soldiers," she said in a statement issued by her office.
Syrian state media have accused insurgents of killing 123 people, mainly civilians, during a rebel offensive in Aleppo province late last month.
A group calling itself the Supporters of the Islamic Caliphate posted a video on YouTube of around 30 bodies of young men piled up against a wall. It said they were militiamen who had supported President Bashar al-Assad.
Over 100,000 people have died in Syria's civil war. In the early months of the conflict Assad's forces were blamed for the documented human rights abuses, but the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria now says both sides have committed atrocities.
"Opposition forces should not think they are immune from prosecution. They must adhere to their responsibilities under international law," Pillay said.
Pillay's office said its team in the region was continuing to investigate the circumstances and scope of the killings, and it had information from a reliable source that opposition fighters were still holding government officers and soldiers captured in Khan al-Assal.
The town is one of three sites due to be visited by another group of U.N. investigators, who are trying to find the truth about allegations that chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.
(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by Andrew Roche)

UN probes allegations of rebel atrocities in Syria

By BARBARA SURK
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) -- United Nations experts are investigating allegations that rebels killed dozens of Syrian soldiers in a village near Aleppo after they captured it from government troops, an incident that could amount to a war crime, the world body's human rights chief said Friday.

Navi Pillay said in a statement that a U.N team in the region is looking into reports about killings that followed the battle in Khan al-Assal in July. Pillay said the team has examined activists' videos and collected accounts from people in Aleppo on an incident that she called "deeply shocking."

While abuses by troops loyal to President Bashar Assad have been systematic and widespread throughout the two-year conflict, human rights groups have said the frequency and scale of rebel abuses also has increased in recent months. Specific allegations against opposition fighters include claims that rebels have routinely killed captured soldiers and suspected regime informers.

Rebels say any such violations are condemned and an unfortunate result of the brutal regime crackdown.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press, the opposition Syrian National Coalition urged council members to "take immediate steps to refer the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court," the world's permanent war crimes tribunal.

"Only by holding the violators of human rights accountable for their crime will the violence in Syria end," said the letter dated Aug. 1 and signed by the coalition's U.N. representative, Najib Ghadbian.

The letter made no mention of Khan al-Assal, but it "condemns all atrocities committed by all parties" and reiterates the coalition's pledge to assist the U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria, "including in liberated areas."

The coalition noted Monday's statement by Paulo Pinheiro, head of the U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria, to the U.N. General Assembly saying "massacres and other unlawful killings are perpetrated with impunity" - most by pro-government forces and some by anti-government armed groups.

Opposition fighters in recent weeks have suffered major setbacks on the battlefield. Infighting among various armed groups also has plagued rebel ranks, weakening the opposition's campaign against Assad's rule.

The capturing of Khan al-Assal on July 21 was a rare success for the opposition, one overshadowed by activists' claims that rebels had killed 150 government soldiers after taking the village. Some of the soldiers who were killed had surrendered to the rebels, the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Syrian state media reported that rebels killed 123 "civilians and military personnel" in Khan al-Assal.

In a statement issued in Geneva on Friday, Pillay said two of the videos the U.N. team reviewed apparently show government soldiers being ordered to lie on the ground, while another shows several bodies scattered along a wall and a number of bodies at an adjacent site.

Preliminary findings of the U.N. probe also suggests that armed opposition groups, in one incident documented by video, executed at least 30 individuals, the majority of whom appeared to be soldiers, Pillay said.

"These images, if verified, suggest that executions were committed in Khan Al-Assal," Pillay said. She called for a "thorough independent investigation to establish whether war crimes have been committed."

She also warned that opposition forces "should not think they are immune from prosecution."

Syria's main opposition bloc last week condemned the killings and blamed them on "armed groups" not affiliated with the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. The umbrella group of opposition fighters is known as The Free Syrian Army. Although rebel groups - including the radical Islamic ones - share a common goal of toppling Assad, they operate independently on the battlefield. Islamic factions have been gaining influence and groups such as the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra front have led major battles in the past year.

In a statement last week, the Nusra Front confirmed its fighters had participated in the battle for Khan al-Assal. The group has not claimed responsibility for the soldiers' killings, though it did confirm that 150 soldiers, pro-government gunmen and Shiite militiamen were killed in Khan al-Assal.

More than 100,000 people have been killed since March 2011 when crisis started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's rule. It turned into civil war after opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. Millions have been fled their homes, with some seeking shelter in more peaceful parts of Syria and more than a million fled into neighboring countries.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos decried the continuing failure by the government and opposition to protect civilians across Syria, which she said means "women, men and children continue to be killed, injured and displaced across the country. "

"Thousands of people are trapped in areas besieged by government forces and opposition groups," she said in a statement. "Hundreds have reportedly been killed, injured or taken hostage in attacks in Homs, Aleppo and other areas of Syria in the last two days alone."

Amos said humanitarian workers are risking their lives to help but people are being prevented from getting basic assistance, including food, drinking water and medical care.

Specifically, in the central city of Homs, new checkpoints are stopping supplies from entering the hard-hit area, said Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF. Lake said in a statement that vegetables, milk and other essentials are in "increasingly short supply" and his own agency's supplies will run out in days.

"Cannot all those involved agree that the innocent women and children in Homs, and across Syria, should be spared all possible suffering?" he asked.

In the latest cycle of rebel-on-rebel violence, 12 Islamic fighters were killed in fighting between Kurdish opposition fighters and rebels linked to al-Qaida, the Observatory said Friday. The clashes took place in the northeastern Hassakeh province, the Observatory said. It added that the dead were all members of two al-Qaida linked groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Nusra Front.

Rival rebels groups - mostly Islamic groups and Kurdish gunmen - frequently have clashed in northern in Syria over control of territory along the border with Turkey that fighters captured from regime troops over the past year.

Earlier this week, the infighting turned into a war within a war after a powerful Kurdish militia called on its supporters to fight al-Qaida-affiliated groups to avenge the recent killing of a prominent political leader.

---

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Chemical weapons investigators head to Syria within days: U.N.

 
(Reuters) - U.N. inspectors will travel to Syria within days to investigate claims of chemical weapons use in the country's civil war after the Syrian government granted access to three sites, the United Nations said on Thursday.
"The team will depart for Syria as soon as practical and is preparing to depart within days," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. "The team is now assembling ... in The Hague."
The head of a U.N. chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, and about 10 experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Health Organization will travel to Syria, Nesirky said.
They will visit Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province - where the Syrian government, backed by its ally Russia, says rebels used chemical weapons in March - and two unidentified locations, the United Nations said.
The U.N. inquiry will only try to establish whether chemical weapons were used, not who used them.
The Syrian government and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical weapons and both have denied it. The United Nations said it has received 13 reports of possible chemical weapons attacks.
Sellstrom and the head of the U.N. Office of Disarmament Affairs, Angela Kane, visited Damascus last week at the invitation of the Syrian government to discuss access and obtained an understanding that it would be granted.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Doina Chiacu)