Snipers target UN weapons inspectors

A Syrian military soldier holds his AK-47 with a sticker of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Arabic that reads 'Syria is fine', as he stands guard at a checkpoint in Damascus, Syria. Picture: AP Source: AP

A UNITED Nations team investigating allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria has been fired upon by unidentified snipers.

A defiant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared that any strike by the US and its allies would be doomed to failure and key ally Moscow said it could have dangerous consequences for the entire region.

A UN spokesman said unidentified snipers shot at the UN team of experts looking into allegations of a chemical attack in a Damascus suburb last week that the Syrian opposition claimed killed hundreds of civilians.

The attack forced them to delay their inspection while they replaced a vehicle but no injuries were reported, said spokesman Martin Nesirky.

"The first vehicle of the chemical weapons investigation team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer zone area,'' he said.  "As the car was no longer serviceable, the team returned safely back to the government checkpoint,'' he added.

The UN team later went to a field hospital at Moadamiyet al-Sham to collect samples, a UN official said.

Syrian authorities quickly accused rebels fighting Assad's forces of being behind the attack.

In this photo taken on a government organized tour, Syrian army soldiers evacuate a comrade injured during heavy clashes with Syrian rebels in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, on Saturday.

The government had approved the UN inspection on Sunday but US officials said it was too little, too late, arguing that persistent shelling there in recent days had "corrupted'' the site.

The attack on the UN team came as the West appeared to be moving closer to launching a military response over last Wednesday's attack near Damascus that shocked the world after grisly pictures emerged of dead children apparently gassed to death.

A Downing Street spokesman said British Prime Minister David Cameron was cutting short his holiday to deal with the crisis and would meet shortly with top cabinet ministers.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague had earlier on Monday said the West could act even without full UN Security Council backing, with China and Moscow expected to boycott any resolution backing a military strike.

Washington and its allies have pointed the finger of blame at Assad's regime for the alleged attack, the latest atrocity in a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people since March 2011.

In the latest pronouncement, a US official told reporters travelling with US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel that Washington was convinced the Syrian regime was behind the attack.

Several bodies being buried during a funeral in a suburb of Damascus, Syria.

"Our confidence is growing that this was in fact an episode involving the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime,'' the official said in Jakarta, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Assad, in an interview with a Russian newspaper published on Monday, angrily denied such accusations as an "insult to common sense'' and said any military action was doomed to fail.

"The United States faces failure just like in all the previous wars they waged,'' he said.

A senior Syrian security official said the regime was ready to face "all scenarios''.

"Western threats of strikes against Syria are part of the psychological and political pressure against Syria, but in any case we are ready to face all scenarios,'' the official said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned his US counterpart John Kerry of the "extremely dangerous consequences of a possible new military intervention for the whole Middle East and North Africa region''.

A Syrian army soldier walks on a street in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus, Syria.

Mr Lavrov told reporters the West was currently moving towards "a very dangerous path, a very slippery path''.

"Using force without the approval of the UN Security Council is a very grave violation of international law,'' Mr Lavrov said.

The international community has long been divided over how to respond to the conflict, with Russia and China repeatedly blocking UN Security Council resolutions.

US President Barack Obama has been loath to order US military action to protect civilians in Syria, fearing being drawn into a vicious civil war, soon after he extracted US troops from Iraq.

But revulsion over video footage and gruesome photographs of dead children blanketing the world's media have seen mounting pressure on the international community.

France said the West would decide in the coming days on a response.

"The only option that I do not envisage is to do nothing,'' Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on French radio.

US officials said that Mr Obama, who had said a year ago that the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces was a "red line'' that could trigger Western intervention, would make an "informed decision'' about how to respond.

Experts believe the most likely US action would see sea-launched cruise missiles target Syrian military installations and artillery batteries deemed complicit in the chemical weapons attack.

Mr Hagel said commanders had prepared a range of military options and were positioning their forces for "whatever the president might choose.''

He did not elaborate, but a defence official said the US Navy would expand its presence in the Mediterranean with a fourth warship armed with cruise missiles.

Washington would likely seek to act with a broad coalition of European and Gulf allies as Russia is seen as sure to veto any attempt to mandate action against its ally.

Senior military officers from Western and Muslim countries, including the US chief of staff - were also gathered in Jordan on Monday to discuss the regional impact of the war in Syria.

The opposition says more than 1300 people died when toxic gases were unleashed on August 14. Doctors Without Borders said 355 people had died of "neurotoxic'' symptoms in the affected areas.
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US and UK to launch strikes against Syria

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