Report: 20 injured in another chemical attack in Syria
Media report second chemical attack in Damascus. Assad affiliates say if Syria is attacked it would strike Israel. Meanwhile, Cameron, Obama speak, say 'no doubt' Syrian regime responsible for chemical attack
Arab media reported Wednesday that another chemical attack struck Syrian territory, injuring several people in the Jobar neighborhood in eastern Damascus.
According to Al Jazeera, the number of injured was 20, whereas Al-Arabiya reported of nine. Meanwhile, in Israel the governmental security cabinet convened to discuss probable military strike on Syria.
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Media also reported of a blast in the al Mujahedeen neighborhood, also in the Syrian capital. The circumstances of the blast are still unclear.
Syria's opposition coalition said on Tuesday President Bashar Assad's forces had dropped phosphorus bombs and napalm on civilians in rural Aleppo on Monday, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.
Video footage uploaded on the Internet, apparently of Monday's attack, showed doctors frantically smearing white cream on the reddened skin of several screaming people, many of them young boys. "Assad's military aircraft have hit populated areas with the internationally prohibited phosphorus bombs and napalm," the opposition coalition said in a statement.
According to a Tuesday Foreign Policy magazine, US intelligence has intercepted an urgent phone call placed by a senior Syrian Defense Ministry official with a commander in a chemical weapons unit.
According to the report, the official contacted the commander to demand answers for the alleged chemical attack that killed more than 1,000 people in a Damascus suburb August 21. The call is the US' main proof that Assad's regime is responsible for the attack.
The UN-Arab League special envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said Wednesday it was clear a chemical substance had been used in an August 21 attack in the war-torn country, killing hundreds of people.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva about the suspected chemical attack, Brahimi said "it does seem some kind of substance was used that killed a lot of people. Hundreds. Definitely more than 100, some people say 300, some people say 600, maybe 1,000, maybe more than 1,000 people."
Assad affiliates insinuate Scud attack on Israel
Kuwait paper Al Rai has quoted sources close to Syrian President Bashar Assad as hinting that the embattled regime would attack Israel if Western forces launch an attack on its territory.
"Iraqi Scuds flew thousands of kilometers to reach Israel while Syrian missiles are no more than 50 km away from Israel's most sensitive facilities," the source said.
"If Israel wants to retaliate to a Syrian attack, the regime's response will go further because it has nothing to lose," he added, noting "A drowning man is not afraid to get wet."
'No doubt'
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said that he and US President Barack Obama had no doubt Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime had used chemical weapons against its own people.
"Both leaders agreed that all the information available confirmed a chemical weapons attack had taken place, noting that even the Iranian President and Syrian regime had conceded this," Downing Street said after the two leaders spoke on the phone Tuesday night.
"They both agreed they were in no doubt that the Assad regime was responsible," it added in a statement.
UN inspectors set off Wednesday to a site in the Syrian capital of alleged chemical weapons attacks, a day after suspending their mission over safety concerns, an AFP photographer said.
The team of arms experts boarded a convoy of six vehicles in Damascus, the photographer said. It was unclear which site they were intending to visit.
The inspectors braved sniper fire when they began their mission on Monday but still managed to visit two field hospitals in Moadamiyet al-Sham, southwest of Damascus, and collect evidence of last week's suspected chemical attacks.
But they were unable carry out a planned visit to a second site in Eastern Ghouta, on the Syrian capital's northeastern outskirts, on Tuesday because their safety could not be guaranteed.
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