Syrian Forces Bomb Area Of Alleged Chemical Attack.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces pressed on with a military offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed over 100 children the day before in a chemical weapons attack.

Syrian citizens identify dead bodies, after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces (AP Photo)

The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as “absolutely baseless.” The United States, Britain and France have demanded that a team of U.N. experts already in Syria be granted immediate access to investigate the site.
The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said President Bashar Assad’s forces were bombing eastern Ghouta from the Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus. It also reported several air raids on the suburbs.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had no word on casualties in the Thursday morning bombing of eastern Ghouta, but confirmed that Syrian warplanes had conducted several air raids on eastern and western suburbs of Damascus, including three that took place within five minutes.
Deadliest Alleged Chemical Attack In Syria’s Civil War
Wednesday’s alleged chemical attack killed scores of children. The small, lifeless bodies appeared in amateur videos, wrapped in white cloths, their pale skin unmarked by any wounds. The images of dead children lined shoulder to shoulder in rooms, and of others being treated for breathing problems, has brought worldwide condemnation and shock.
Syrian opposition figures and activists reported widely varying death tolls from Wednesday’s attack, from 136 to as high as 1,300. But even the most conservative tally would make it the deadliest alleged chemical attack in Syria’s civil war.

A Syrian man mourns over a dead body in Douma town, Damascus. (AP Photo)

Mohammed Abdullah, an activist in the suburb of Saqba told The Associated Press on Thursday that most of the dead were buried hours after the attack in different areas in eastern Ghouta. The burials took place quickly for fear the bodies might decompose as a result of the heat and lack of electricity, he said.
Most Of The Dead Buried In Mass Graves
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the Syrian opposition’s allegations were “so serious, so monstrous that it is necessary to enable a real examination before talking or speculating about consequences.” The unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later exploded into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to U.N. figures.
Syrian Forces Bomb Area Of Alleged Chemical Attack.