Syria: Snipers shooting at U.N. inspectors

BEIRUT/AMMAN, Aug 26 (Reuters) - U.N. chemical weapons inspectors in Syria met and took samples from victims of an apparent poison gas attack in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus on Monday after the U.N. team themselves survived a sniper attack that hit a vehicle in their convoy.

A Syrian doctor told Reuters from the suburb, Mouadamiya, that investigators from the United Nations had crossed the frontline from the centre of the capital, which remains under the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The U.N. said one vehicle in its convoy had been crippled by shooting by "unidentified snipers", but mentioned no injuries. Their arrival meant whoever fired had failed to turn them back.

With Western powers considering military strikes, despite vocal opposition from Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies, any evidence to support rebel claims that government forces fired gas-laden rockets five days ago that killed hundreds of civilians will be a key element in arguments for peace or war.

Ben_Reilly wrote:I for one support limited military intervention from the U.S. and any nation that has signed the chem. weapons treaty, but not a full-scale war. Air strikes on suspected chemical weapons compounds should do the trick, I would hope. We certainly don't need an escalating war, but we can't turn our backs on the use of chemical weapons imo.

The head of the Arab League has said military intervention in Syria is not an option - a further blow to the United States' efforts to act over a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last month.

Following emergency meetings in Cairo on Monday, secretary-general, Nabil Elaraby, said the League held the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad responsible for the August 21 attack, but a "military option is out of the question".

He said that the United Nations inspectors who had investigated the attack site "do not have the powers to say who committed this... so, all the inspectors will say is that chemical weapons have been used".

His comments came a day after the League stopped short of calling for military intervention in Syria, instead asking the UN and the international community to take "deterrent" measures under international law.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council failed to reach an agreement Wednesday on a British-proposed resolution that would authorize the use of military force against Syria, as the U.N. chief pleaded for more time for diplomacy.