Hundreds Reported Killed In Syria Gas Attack
ALJAZEERA - Opposition groups say hundreds killed when government forces fired rockets with chemical warheads into Damascus suburbs.
Syrian activists claim that government forces have carried out a "poisonous gas" attack in suburbs of the capital, Damascus, leaving hundreds of people dead.
Activists said regime forces fired "rockets with poisonous gas heads" in the alleged attack early on Wednesday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the shelling was intense and hit the eastern suburbs of Zamalka, Arbeen and Ein Tarma.
It said at least 100 were killed, while the Local Coordination Committees said hundreds of people were killed or injured in the shelling.
The attack coincided with the visit by a 20-member UN chemical weapons team to Syria to investigate three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred over the past year.
Graphic Video Suggests Chemical Attack In Syria
MSNBC - Richard Engel, NBC News chief foreign correspondent, talks with Rachel Maddow about the evidence presented by Syrian rebels that the government there has used chemical weapons against them and the arguments being made over what the evidence shows.
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Possible Chemical Weapons Massacre In Syria
Incredible, shocking news out of Syria. A possible chemical weapons massacre by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, with casualty estimates ranging from more than one hundred to more than 1200 including scores of children. The latter figure, if confirmed, would amount to one of the greatest war crimes of the past several decades. NBC's Richard Engel and MSNBC Contributor Rula Jebreal join Chris Hayes.
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UN Inspectors To Assess Scenes Of Horror In Syria
MSNBC - Charles Blair, chemical weapons expert and senior fellow at the American Federation of Scientists, talks with Rachel Maddow about what evidence UN weapons inspectors will be looking for to confirm a chemical weapons attack in Syria and how much pressure there is for inspections to be conducted quickly.
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West Presses Syria To Let U.N. Team Reach Poison Gas Scene
Reuters - Western powers demanded Syria give U.N. chemical weapons experts immediate access on Thursday to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds just a few miles from the U.N. team's hotel.
There was no sign, however, that they would soon be taking take samples at the scene of horrors that have drawn comparison with the gassing of thousands of Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in 1988.
President Bashar al-Assad's opponents gave death tolls from 500 to well over 1,000 and said more bodies were being found in the wake of Wednesday's mysterious pre-dawn killer fumes, which the Syrian government insists were not of its making.
Talk, notably from France and Britain, of a forceful foreign response remains unlikely to be translated into rapid, concerted action given Russian opposition and deep caution in Washington.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said world powers must respond with force if allegations that Syria's government was responsible for the deadliest chemical attack on civilians in a quarter-century prove true; but even Fabius stressed there was no question of sending in troops on the ground.
Syrian Activist on Ghouta Attack: "I Haven’t Seen Such Death in My Whole Life"
The Syrian government is facing growing pressure to allow an international probe of an alleged chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. The Syrian opposition says government forces fired poisonous gas into rebel-held neighborhoods of Ghouta, killing hundreds of people. Video posted on YouTube this week shows frantic scenes of overwhelmed hospitals, dead children and countless bodies. If confirmed, it would stand to be the most violent incident in Syria since the rebel uprising began two years ago and one of the worst toxic attacks in decades. The alleged attack occurred just days after U.N. inspectors arrived in the country to investigate previous attacks. We’re joined from Syria by Razan Zaitouneh, a lawyer and human rights activist who works with the Human Rights Violation Documentation Center. "We couldn’t believe our eyes," Zaitouneh says of witnessing the attack’s aftermath. "I haven’t seen such death in my whole life." We also speak with Patrick Cockburn, a longtime Middle East correspondent for the London Independent who recently returned from reporting in Syria. His latest article is "The evidence of chemical attack seems compelling — but remember — there’s a propaganda war on."
