Moscow slams U.N. draft resolution on attack as 'unacceptable'

Russia on Wednesday stepped up to defend Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the world condemned a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town, claiming Syrian airstrikes caused a 'terrorist' chemical weapons manufacturing lab to leak.

Moscow further said that a U.N. resolution put forward by the United Kingdom, France and the United States on the attack was "unacceptable".

Russia's TASS news agency quoted Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov saying that the lab was producing projectiles armed with chemical weapons that rebels planned to send to Iraq.

Konoshenkov said "chemical-laden weapons" produced at the factory were previously used in Iraq, apparently a reference to a International Committee of the Red Cross report in March saying toxic agents were used in fighting near Mosul.

"That strains credulity," a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "Russian assertions do not comport with reality."

Hamish de Bretton Gordon, an expert on use of chemical weapons in Syria, told BBC Radio 4 that the Kremlin's claim was "pretty fanciful".

“Axiomatically, if you blow up sarin, you destroy it," he told the station, adding that Russia's claim was "completely unsustainable and completely untrue."

The U.S. government believes sarin gas was used the attack, an official source told Reuters. In 2013, the U.S. and Russia brokered a deal for Syria to give up all of its chemical weapon stockpiles. Damascus handed over some 1,300 tons of toxins and industrial chemicals for destruction. U.N. investigators found that Assad's forces continued using chlorine gas in so-called barrel bombs.

The World Health Organization meanwhile confirmed that some victims had symptoms consistent with exposure to a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The UN health agency said the deadly attack in Idlib province Tuesday appeared to have involved chemical weapons, pointing to the "apparent lack of external injuries reported in cases showing a rapid onset of similar symptoms, including acute respiratory distress as the main cause of death."

"Some cases appear to show additional signs consistent with exposure to organophosphorus chemicals, a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents," it said.

Peter Salama, head of WHO's health emergencies program, said in a statement that "these types of weapons are banned by international law because they represent an intolerable barbarism."

As soon as word got out about the suspected chemical attack, WHO said it had begun dispatching medicines, including Atrophine, an antidote for some types of chemical exposure, and steroids for symptomatic treatment, from a warehouse in Idlib.

The suspected attack on the town of Khan Sheikhun killed at least 86 civilians and saw dozens suffer respiratory problems and symptoms including vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. Unconfirmed Arabic media reports put the death toll as high as 150.

"According to Russian airspace monitoring systems, yesterday between 11.30 and 12.30 local time the Syrian aviation carried out an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Sheikhun, targeting a major ammunition storage facility of terrorists and a cluster of military hardware." Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said. "The territory of this storage facility housed workshops to produce projectiles stuffed with toxic agents."

He went on to charge that the weapons stored in the facility were similar to ones used in an attack on Aleppo last fall. Russia blamed the Aleppo attack on rebel groups as well.

"Video footage from social networks shows that those affected in Khan Sheikhun demonstrate the same symptoms of poisoning as the victims of the Aleppo attack had last fall," he said, while also accusing the opposition of delivering the weapons to Iraq.

"From this major arsenal, chemical-laden weapons were delivered by militants to Iraq," said Konashenkov. "Their use by terrorists was confirmed on numerous occasions by international organizations and official authorities of the country."

Syria's opposition meanwhile, blamed Assad's forces, saying the attack cast doubt on the future of peace talks.

The army denied any involvement in a statement blaming "terrorist groups" for using "chemical and toxic substances".

At least 20 children and 17 women are among the dead and "the death toll could rise further because there are people missing," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

World leaders reject Russia's defense of regime

The suspected chemical weapons attack shows war crimes continue in Syria, UN chief Antonio Guterres said Wednesday.

"The horrific events of yesterday demonstrate unfortunately that war crimes are going on in Syria (and that) international humanitarian law is being violated frequently," Guterres said as he went into a Syria aid conference in Brussels.

Also attending the conference was British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who said that all evidence points to Assad being behind the suspected attack,

"All the evidence I have seen suggests this was the Assad regime... using illegal weapons on their own people," Johnson said as he arrived for a Syria aid conference in Brussels.

"What it confirms to everybody is that this is a barbaric regime which has made it impossible for us to imagine them (having) authority over Syria after this conflict," he added.

The Brussels conference, co-chaired by the EU and UN, is a follow up to last year's London meeting which raised $11 billion (10 billion euros) for humanitarian aid programs in the devastated country.

It is also meant to support UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva where mediator Steffan de Mistura has reported some very modest progress in solving a conflict which has claimed more than 320,000 lives and displaced most of the Syrian population.

EU president Donald Tusk also shifted blame to Assad, saying that "the Syrian regime (has) the primary responsibility for the atrocities, but all those who support the regime share the moral and political responsibility."

"The indiscriminate killing of children, women and men with chemical weapons is another tragic reminder of the brutality of this conflict, and the Syrian regime," Tusk said during a visit to Greece.

French President Francois Hollande called for an international response to the suspected chemical attack, calling it a "war crime".

Hollande "reiterated his indignation over the use of chemical weapons in Syria and called for a reaction by the international community commensurate with this war crime," the president's office said in a statement.

US comments on Assad encourage 'more crimes': Syria opposition

Syria's opposition on Wednesday said the latest comments from Washington softening its line against Assad were encouraging him to commit more crimes.

"Until now, this (US) administration has done nothing and adopted an attitude of a spectator, making statements that give the regime an opportunity to commit more crimes," the deputy head of the Syrian National Coalition Abdelhakim Bashar told reporters in Istanbul.

The previous administration of former US president Barack Obama had always pushed for the ouster of Assad, supporting the rebels fighting against his forces.

But in an apparent U-turn, the US ambassador to the United Nations and other top officials in the new administration of President Donald Trump have said ousting Assad is no longer a priority.

"You pick and choose your battles," US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told reporters, echoing comments made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on a visit to Turkey last week.

But in a toughening of rhetoric, the White House accused Assad of carrying out a "reprehensible" and "intolerable" chemical attack.

Abdelhakim Bashar said that the Assad regime posed an even greater danger to security than Islamic State (IS) jihadists and the former Al-Qaesa affiliate Al-Nusra front, now called Fateh al-Sham.

"As long as the regime is in place it won't be possible to defeat terrorism," said Bashar, whose group is the main umbrella organisation of Syrian opposition organisations.

"Even if Daesh (IS) and Al-Nusra are going to be eliminated then this regime would create new terrorist groups to ask the world to choose between it and terrorism," he said.