The Syrian opposition said Wednesday that state security forces had launched intense artillery and rocket barrages on the eastern suburbs of the capital Damascus, claiming that hundreds of people died in what was being called a “poisonous gas” attack.
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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 during the past year. Their presence raises questions about why the regime – which called the claims of the attack Wednesday “absolutely baseless” – would use chemical agents at this time.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said the U.S. is deeply concerned by reports chemical weapons use in Syria, and that the Obama administration is “working urgently to gather additional information.
“If the Syrian government has nothing to hide and is truly committed to an impartial and credible investigation of chemical weapons use in Syria, it will facilitate the U.N. team’s immediate and unfettered access to this site,” Earnest said.
The Egypt-based Arab League condemned the “horrific attack” against civilians and called for an investigation.
The statement also asked the U.N. to investigate, and asked that weapons inspectors already in the country be given immediate access to the site.
CBS News’ Pamela Falk reports the United Nations Security Council is holding emergency consultations Wednesday afternoon to discuss the reports. Reuters reports the U.N. team in Syria has already begun talks with the Assad regime about the incident, although whether they were discussing access to the site is unclear.
George Sabra, deputy head of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, said at a news conference that 1,300 people were killed as shells rained down on the capital’s eastern suburbs of Douma, Jobar, Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma.
The opposition Local Coordination Committees said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling, and a nurse at a health center in Douma put the death toll at 213.
The varying death tolls, which are common following attacks in Syria due to the government’s refusal to allow independent news reporting, could not be immediately reconciled.
There were also conflicting reports as to what exactly transpired. Syria’s Information Minister called the activists’ claim a “disillusioned and fabricated one whose objective is to deviate and mislead” the U.N. mission.
“Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupil dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths,” nurse Bayan Baker told the Reuters news agency. “The doctors say these are typical symptoms of nerve gas victims,” she said.
Even the unverified claims of a mass-chemical attack in Syria will add urgency to the debate within the Obama administration over whether and how the U.S. government should seek to intervene in the crisis, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives during the past two years.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Democratic member of the House of Representatives in a letter leaked to the media that military intervention had essentially been ruled out because there wasn’t yet an opposition cohesive and trustworthy enough to fill the void if President Bashar Assad’s regime is toppled.
“Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides,” Dempsey said in the letter Aug. 19 to Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel. “It is my belief that the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not.”
Videos uploaded to social networking websites showed dozens of dead people of all ages lying on sidewalks and inside buildings, their bodies showing no obvious signs of injury. In one video allegedly shot in the Ghouta area, where all the suburbs allegedly targeted are located, at least a dozen young children’s bodies were lined up on the floor.
Other videos showed toddlers convulsing and foaming from the mouth as people tried to wash their faces with bottled water. None of the videos could be independently verified.
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