DAMASCUS, Syria — A senior United Nations team tasked with investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war arrived in Damascus on Wednesday to discuss with government officials a possible inquiry into such attacks.
This is the first such trip by international experts and the talks are to focus on about a dozen incidents in which chemical arms were purportedly used. The rebels, the U.S. and others have accused the regime of using the weapons of mass destruction, while Damascus and its ally Russia have blamed the rebels for such attacks.
The team has been invited by the Syrian government to discuss the terms of a possible probe.
Damascus has requested the U.N. investigate only one of the reported attacks — a March 19 incident in the northern village of Khan al-Assal in which both rebels and the government accuse each other of using chemicals weapons — but refused inquiries into other alleged attack sites in the central city of Homs, Damascus and elsewhere.
