Syria will let inspectors go to site of suspected chemical weapons attack, official says
Source: CNN
Syria has agreed to allow weapons inspectors full access to any site of a purported chemical weapons attack, effective immediately, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad tells CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
As Western powers try to verify claims that Syria deployed chemical weapons last week in a Damascus suburb, the government is pointing the finger at rebel forces.
They are pointing it back, accusing the government of gassing hundreds of people to death.
United Nations inspectors in Syria, attempting to gather information, say that Syria has not permitted them to visit the site of the attack.
In the meantime, the Pentagon has sent four warships armed with cruise missiles to the region.
Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/25/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
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tens of thousands to maintain power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre
Initial diplomatic reports from western governments in 1982 had believed that 1000 were killed in the fighting.[3][4] Subsequent estimates of casualties vary from 7,000 to 40,000 people killed, including about 1,000 soldiers.[citation needed] Robert Fisk, who was in Hama shortly after the massacre, originally estimated fatalities at 10,000, but has since doubled the estimate to 20,000.[1][20][21] The president's brother Rifaat reportedly boasted of killing 38,000 people.[22] Amnesty International initially estimated the death toll was between 10,000 and 25,000, the vast majority civilians.[8]
Reports by the Syrian Human Rights Committee estimate "over 25,000"[23] or between 30,000 to 40,000 people were killed.[6] The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood also suggests a figure of approximately 40,000 victims.
Twenty years later, Syrian journalist Subhi Hadidi, wrote that "under the command of General Ali Haydar, besieged the city for 27 days, bombarding it with heavy artillery and tank [fire], before invading it and killing 30,000 or 40,000 of the city's citizens – in addition to the 15,000 missing who have not been found to this day, and the 100,000 expelled."[2]
Use of Sarin requires a substantial infrastructure for manufacture and maintenance, and the regime has long had Sarin in inventory.
Even after Al Jazeera was publishing photo graphic evidence the regime was denying that there was any attack:
The accounts could not be verified independently and were denied by Syrian state television, which said they were disseminated deliberately to distract a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts that arrived three days ago.
Syria's Information Minister called the activists' claim a 'disillusioned and fabricated one whose objective is to deviate and mislead' the UN mission.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2398691/Syrias-darkest-hour-Hundreds-childrens-bodies-piled-high-nerve-gas-attack-near-Damascus-leaves-1-300-dead.html#ixzz2d5nABoI9
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