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Syrian soldiers find chemical agents in rebel tunnels: TV

Syrian state television said government soldiers found chemical agents in rebel tunnels in the Damascus suburb of Jobar on Saturday and some of the troops were suffocating even as global pressure on Syria continued to allow a UN inspection team into the areas affected by an alleged chemical attack.

A handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network on August 23, shows a relative weaping over the boody of one of his family members killed during what Syrian rebels claim to be a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta earlier in the week, during their funeral on the outskirts of Damascus. -AFP

“Army heroes are entering the tunnels of the terrorists and saw chemical agents,” state television quoted a “news source” as saying. “In some cases, soldiers are suffocating while entering Jobar,” it said.

“Ambulances came to rescue the people who were suffocating in Jobar,” it said, adding that an army unit was preparing to storm the suburb where rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Al Assad are based.

Syrian activists accuse Assad’s forces of launching a nerve gas attack in Jobar and other suburbs before dawn on Wednesday, killing between 500 and more than 1,000 people.

Assad’s government has dismissed the accusation and its major ally Russia has suggested rebel fighters may have launched the attack themselves to provoke international action.

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane arrived in Damascus on Saturday to push for access to the suspected chemical weapons attack site for UN inspectors, who are already in Syria to investigate months-old accusations.

So far Assad’s government has not said whether it will allow access to the site despite being under increasing pressure from the United Nations and various countries.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Saturday that all indications show that Syria’s government was behind the “chemical massacre”.

“All the information at our disposal converges to indicate that there was a chemical massacre near Damascus and that the Bashar regime is responsible,” Fabius said on a visit to Ramallah in the West Bank.

Opponents of Bashar Al Assad said the president’s forces killed 1,300 people when they unleased chemical weapons east and southwest of Damascus in the attacks on Wednesday.

“We ask that the UN team that is there can be deployed very quickly and make the necessary inspections,” Fabius said.

“The information which we have shows that this chemical massacre is of such gravity that it obviously cannot pass without a strong reaction,” he added.

In an interview with Focus magazine, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Damascus allies China and Russia for blocking a Western-backed UN text demanding that inspectors probing chemical weapons use in Syria be given unfettered access.

“Unfortunately, the opposition of Russia and China thwarted a formal statement by the UN Security Council calling for them (the inspectors) to be granted full access,” Merkel said.

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane arrives in Damascus August 24. - Reuters

A draft supported by the United States, Britain and France and calling for the powers of UN inspectors to be reinforced was circulated at a council meeting on Wednesday, in the wake of fresh allegations that chemical weapons had been used in Syria.

But according to diplomats, the council’s two other permanent members China and Russia blocked it and only agreed to a weaker statement.

“What matters now is that the UN inspectors who are already in Syria be allowed to reach the scene as soon as possible,” Merkel said.

UN Under-secretary General Angela Kane arrived Saturday after the world body urged Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s regime and its opponents to cooperate with an investigation into the attacks said to have killed hundreds of people.