The team of 19 UN experts looking into the allegations that the Syrian army was responsible for using chemical weapons against its own civilians, has been forced to abandon its investigation, at least for the time being, after being shot at by snipers outside Damascus, the Telegraph reported.
The experts were “deliberately” targeted as their convoy was traveling to the site of where the atrocities had taken place. One car was damaged, so far no injuries were reported.
“The first vehicle of the chemical weapons investigation team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky announced.
Britain and the United States believe it is a foregone conclusion that President, Bashar al-Assad’s army carried out the chemical attack, which is reported to have killed at least 355 people and wounded 3,600 others.
On Sunday, Assad permitted access to the site to the UN chemical weapons inspectors, who were supposed to begin work on Monday, gathering evidence as to who really was behind the attack: the rebels, as Syria, Iran, Russia and MP George Galloway have been saying, or Assad’s people, as all the sane people on our planet are convinced by now.
The only problem envisioned Sunday by some in the Obama Administration was the strong possibility that by the time Assad opened up the site for the inspectors, it would have been cleaned up thoroughly.
Still, clean and ready for inspection or not, shortly before midday on Monday, it was reported that snipers had opened fire on the inspectors near Damascus, forcing them to suspend their investigation.