)
A senior administration official said today there is "very little doubt" that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in an incident that killed at least 100 people last week, but added that President Barack Obama had not yet decided how to respond.
The official said the US intelligence community based its assessment given to the White House on "the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured," and witness accounts. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorised to speak publicly.
The official said the White House believes the Syrian government is continuing to bar a UN investigative team immediate access to the site of a reported August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs, in order to give the evidence of the attack time to degrade.
The US official said the regime's continuing shelling of the site also further corrupts any available evidence of the attack.
Syrian state media, however, reported today that Syria's government has reached an agreement with the United Nations to allow a UN team of experts to visit the site of last week's alleged chemical weapons attack.
Last Wednesday's purported chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta has prompted US naval forces to move closer to Syria. Obama met with his national security team yesterday to assess the intelligence and consider a US military response, almost a year after warning the regime of Syrian President Bashar Asad that chemical weapons use was a "red line" for the United States.
