UN team comes under fire while visiting Syrian town hit by suspected chemical attack

A UNsecurity teamcame under fire in Syria while doing reconnaissance forinspectors to visit sites of a suspected chemical weaponsattack, and officials said it was no longer clear when theinspectors would be able to go in.

The inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons are in Syria to investigate an April 7 incidentin which Western countries and rescue workers say scores ofcivilians were gassed to death by government forces.

The United NationsDepartment of Safety and Security (UNDSS) had decided to carryout reconnaissance at two sites in the town of Douma before theinspectors would visit them, saidOPCW director-generalAhmetUzumcu.

"On arrival at site one, a large crowd gathered and theadvice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance teamshould withdraw," he told a meeting at the watchdog'sheadquarters in remarks it later released.

"At Site 2, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated.The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus."

The United States, Britain and France fired missiles atSyrian targets on Saturday in retaliation for the suspected chemical use. They say the arrival of the inspectors is beingheld up by Syrian authorities who now control the area, and thatevidence of the chemical attack may be being destroyed.

Damascus and its ally Moscow deny that any gas attack tookplace, that they are holding up the inspections or that they have tampered with evidence at the site. Britain's Ambassador tothe OPCW Peter Wilson said it was now unclear when theinspectors would be able to reach it.

The rebel group based in Douma announced its surrender hoursafter the suspected chemical attack, and the last rebels left aweek later, hours after the Western retaliation strikes.

The U.S.-led intervention has threatened to escalateconfrontation between the West and Assad's backer Russia, although it has had no impact on the fighting on the ground, inwhich pro-government forces have pressed on with a campaign tocrush the rebellion.

Assad is now in his strongest position since the earlymonths of a seven-year-old civil war that has killed more than 500,000 people and driven more than half of Syrians from theirhomes.

Delay causes dispute

The OPCW team will seek evidence from soil samples,interviews with witnesses, blood, urine or tissue samples from victims and weapon parts. But, more than a week after thesuspected attack, hard evidence might be hard to trace.

An official close to the Syrian government said the UNsecurity team had been met by protesters demonstrating against
the U.S.-led strikes.

"It was a message from the people," said the official. Themission "will continue its work,"the official said.

Douma was the last town to hold out in the besieged easternGhouta enclave, the last big rebel bastion near the capital Damascus. Eastern Ghouta was captured by a government advanceover the past two months.

Syria's UNambassador said on Tuesday the fact-findingmission would begin its work in Douma on Wednesday if the UNsecurity team deemed the situation there safe.

The Syrian "White Helmets" rescue organization, whichoperates in rebel-held areas, has pinpointed for the OPCW teamthe places where victims of the suspected attack are buried, the rescue group's head Raed Saleh said on Wednesday.

Douma hospital workers who stayed in the town after the armyrecaptured it have said that none of the people injured on thenight of the attack were exposed to chemical weapons.

Medical charities operating in opposition-held parts ofSyria have dismissed those statements as propaganda, given underduress now that government forces control the town.