Tag Archives: united-states
US ready for action on Syria
US ready for action on Syria Allan Jacob / 27 August 2013 The United States on Monday said its forces in the region were ready for any military action on Syria if ordered by President Obama as UN chemical weapons experts got to work in the stricken country, interviewing and taking blood samples from victims of an alleged gas attack last week. “I can confirm that the US Navy has assets in the region prepared to support any decision by the president,” said Commander Bill Speaks from the Office of the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, in response to questions by Khaleej Times . Khaleej Times can also confirm that the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group arrived in the region last week after transiting through the Suez Canal. US 5th Fleet spokesperson Lt. Marissa Myatt said it was a routine deployment and the Group would replace another nuclear-powered carrier, the USS Nimitz . What is significant is that it will be the first time in a year when two carriers operate in the region. UN chemical weapons experts visit a hospital where wounded people affected by an apparent gas attack are being treated, in the southwestern Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya on Monday. -Reuters ‘‘We’ve trained hard and we’re ready to operate alongside our coalition partners to conduct maritime security operations to ensure stability and build trust and confidence throughout the region,” said Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, commander of the Group. The USS Harry S. Truman Strike Group is accompanied by guided-missile cruisers USS San Jacinto and USS Gettysburg ; guided-missile destroyers USS Bulkeley and USS Mason ; a strike fighter squadron; an airborne early earning squadron; an electronic attack squadron; a helicopter sea combat squadron and a helicopter maritime strike squadron. This development comes in the wake of talks between military leaders from the United States, Europe and the Middle East in Jordan for what could be a council of war should they decide to punish Syria for the worst reported chemical weapons attack in 25 years, agencies reported. Last week, hundreds of people died in Damascus suburbs in what appears to have been the worst chemical weapons attack since Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds to death in 1988. Meanwhile, UN investigators crossed the frontline from the centre of the capital, which remains under Assad’s control, to inspect the Mouadamiya suburb, one of at least four neighbourhoods hit by poison gas last Wednesday before dawn, Reuters reported. The UN said one vehicle in its convoy was crippled by shooting by “unidentified snipers”, but mentioned no injuries. They continued on after turning back for a replacement car. “I am with the team now,” a doctor who uses the name Abu Karam told Reuters by telephone from Mouadamiya. “We are in the Rawda mosque and they are meeting with the wounded. Our medics and the inspectors are talking to the patients and taking samples from the victims now.” Wassim Al Ahmad, an opposition activist, said members of the Free Syrian Army umbrella rebel organisation and the opposition’s Mouadamiya Local Council were accompanying the inspectors on their tour of the suburb. “The inspectors are now examining victims being treated at a makeshift hospital in Mouadamiya and are taking blood samples from them,” Ahmad said. Video filmed at the site showed inspectors in black and blue body armour and blue UN helmets walking through a street as curious onlookers came up to watch. They shook hands with men who appeared to be rebels wearing camouflage vests, and were accompanied by doctors and local residents. The group descended into the basement of a building where they were told injured survivors were being treated below ground to protect them from more shelling. Another video showed an inspector interviewing a patient and taking notes. Activists say at least 80 people were killed in Mouadamiya when the district was hit with poison gas. Hundreds of people were also killed in three other rebel-held districts – Irbin, Ain Tarma and Jobar. An opposition activist said a large crowd of people gathered to air their grievances to the UN team. There was also a plan for the experts to take samples from corpses. (With inputs from agencies) allan@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
UN inspectors reach Syria gas victims
UN inspectors reach Syria gas victims (Reuters) / 26 August 2013 UN 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 UN team survived a gun attack on its convoy. A Syrian doctor told Reuters from the town of 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 UN said the shooting crippled one vehicle but mentioned no injuries. 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. “I am with the team now,” the doctor who uses the name Abu Karam told Reuters by telephone from rebel-held Mouadamiya. “We are in the Rawda mosque and they are meeting with the wounded. Our medics and the inspectors are talking to the patients and taking samples from the victims now.” Another opposition activist said a large crowd was growing of people eager to air their grievances to the UN team. There was a plan for the experts also to take samples from corpses. Syrian state television blamed rebel “terrorists” for the shooting, which briefly halted the convoy but failed to stop the inspectors from crossing the front line. The opposition blamed it on pro-Assad militiamen. Any delay diminishes whatever evidence the experts might recover. With speculation mounting that Nato powers might fire cruise missiles to satisfy calls for action to protect Syrian civilians, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said any operation would be coordinated with allies. British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a holiday to chair a top level security meeting. “The United States is looking at all options regarding the situation in Syria. We’re working with our allies and the international community,” Hagel told a news conference. “We are analysing the intelligence. And we will get the facts. And if there is any action taken, it will be in concert with the international community and within the framework of legal justification.” Hagel plans discussions with his British and French counterparts, a senior US official said. The French foreign minister said on Monday that Russian and Chinese vetoes in the UN Security Council may make it hard to get a UN agreement to satisfy international law. The UN said in a statement that gunmen shot at the first vehicle in the team’s six-car convoy, damaging it to the point that the team had to stop to find a replacement car. “The first vehicle of the Chemical Weapons Investigation Team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer zone area,” it said. “It has to be stressed again that all sides need to extend their cooperation so that the team can safely carry out their important work.” The team of chemical weapons experts wearing blue UN body armour left a Damascus hotel where they have been based for over a week, accompanied by a car of Syrian security personnel, as well as an ambulance. At least two mortar bombs struck the area of central Damascus on Monday. Syrian state media said the mortar bombs were locally made and fired by “terrorists”. SANA state news agency said three people were wounded. Assad said accusations that his forces used chemical weapons were politically motivated and warned the United States against intervening in his country. “Would any state use chemicals or any other weapons of mass destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated? That would go against elementary logic. So accusations of this kind are entirely political,” he told the Russian newspaper Izvestia in an interview. “Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day.” In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China supported an independent and objective investigation by UN experts into allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and urged a cautious response and a political resolution to the crisis. The experts’ mandate is to find out whether chemical weapons were used, not to assign blame, but the evidence they collect, for example about the missile used, can provide a strong indication about the identity of the party responsible. Continue reading
UN to inspect Syria gas attack site today
UN to inspect Syria gas attack site today (Reuters) / 26 August 2013 The United Nations said on Sunday its experts would start their probe of an alleged Syrian chemical weapons site on Monday after Syria agreed to allow the inspection even as a US official said it was already too late. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “has instructed the mission … currently in Damascus, to focus its attention on ascertaining the facts of the August 21 incident as its highest priority,” the UN said in a statement. “The mission is preparing to conduct on-site fact-finding activities, starting tomorrow, Monday, 26 August.” The UN announcement came shortly after Damascus gave the green light for the inspectors to carry out the probe into the alleged use of chemical weapons near the Syrian capital on Wednesday. “The Secretary-General would like to reiterate that all relevant parties equally share the responsibility of cooperating in urgently generating a safe environment for the mission to do its job efficiently and providing all necessary information.” Foreign powers have been searching for a response from the Syria regime since many hundreds of people were killed by poisonous gas on Wednesday in the suburbs of Damascus in what appears to have been the world’s worst chemical weapons attack in 25 years. There were increasing signs that the United States and its allies were considering taking action, a year after President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that would prompt serious consequences. A senior US official said there was very little doubt that the Syrian government had used a chemical weapon against civilians on Wednesday and that Washington was still weighing how to respond. The official also said any decision to grant access to the UN inspectors would be “too late to be credible” because evidence had been corrupted by government shelling and other actions. Syria’s information minister said any US military action would “create a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East”. He also said Damascus had evidence that chemical weapons were used by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Al Assad, not by his government. Western countries say they believe the rebels do not have access to poison gas. Opposition activists in Damascus said the army was using surface-to-surface missiles and artillery to strike eastern Damascus on Sunday, including neighbourhoods where the mass poisoning occurred. US President Barack Obama met his top military and national security advisers on Saturday to debate options. US naval forces have been repositioned in the Mediterranean to give Obama the option of an armed strike. “Based on the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, witness accounts, and other facts gathered by open sources, the US intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident,” the senior US official said. President Bashar Al Assad’s closest ally Iran, repeating Obama’s own previous rhetoric, said the United States should not cross a “red line” by attacking Syria. “America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria’s red line will have severe consequences for the White House,” said Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s military, Fars news agency reported. The Syrian opposition says between 500 and well over 1,000 civilians were killed this week by gas in munitions fired by pro-government forces. The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said three hospitals near Damascus had reported 355 deaths in the space of three hours out of about 3,600 admissions with nerve gas-type symptoms. The head of the Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebel group has pledged to target communities from Assad’s Alawi sect with rockets in revenge for Wednesday’s incident, according to an audio recording published on YouTube. “For every chemical rocket that had fallen on our people in Damascus, one of their villages will, by the will of God, pay for it,” Abu Mohammad Al Golani said in the recording. Continue reading
