Syria government says rebels using chemical weapons

Syria's government said Saturday rebel fighters had used chemical weapons in a north-eastern district of the capital Damascus.

This came as a reaction to charges by insurgents that the regime was behind such attacks.

State television ran footage of "barrels filled with highly dangerous toxic and chemical agents" as well as gas masks.

The report said this was only a small sample of what had been unearthed in overrunning rebel positions.

The rebels "used these agents to try to halt the advance of the army," it said.

"An army unit is surrounding a sector of Jobar where terrorists used chemical weapons," said the state broadcaster

It added that soldiers who tried to enter the neighbourhood had "suffocated".

Rebel-held Jobar on the outskirts of Damascus has been under army bombardment and air strikes for several months.

POISON GAS INHILATION

The state broadcaster said several soldiers had suffered poison gas inhalation and some were in critical condition.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government carried out four air raids Saturday on areas near Jobar, where soldiers and rebel fighters were locked in fierce clashes.

The state broadcaster also said Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which both openly support the 29-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, had supplied rebels with gas masks and medication.

In a sweep of Jobar, "the army found barrels marked 'made in Saudi Arabia' and gas masks, " a correspondent for the channel reported, adding that medicine for poison gas inhalation was also found, with the brand of an unnamed German-Qatari firm.

Rebels have "resorted to chemical weapons after the successes of the Syrian army in recent days," charged the television broadcast.

The UN disarmament envoy, Under Secretary General Angela Kane, was in Damascus Saturday after the opposition accused Assad's forces of killing more than 1,300 people in gas attacks Wednesday southwest and east of the capital.

Syria has denied the charges.

However, it has yet to say if it will allow a team of UN chemical weapons inspectors already on the ground since Sunday to probe three other sites to investigate the latest allegations.