Syrian Opposition Rejects Chemical Attack Accusations as U.N. Envoy Arrives for Probe

Syria's opposition denied Saturday charges that rebels had resorted to the use of chemical arms, saying the government was attempting to divert attention from its own use of them.

"The National Coalition totally rejects the lies from the (President Bashar) Assad regime and considers them a desperate bid to divert attention from its repeated crimes and methods against Syrian civilians," the main opposition bloc said.

The "international community knows full well that the Assad regime is the only party in Syria which possesses the means to produce, use and stock chemical weapons," the statement said.

It also said it was trying to obtain satellite imagery proving the regime's use of chemical weapons and criticized U.N. investigators for the delay in visiting the site of an alleged "massacre" Wednesday with such arms in a Damascus suburb.

Syria's government said earlier Saturday rebel fighters had used chemical weapons in a northeastern district of the capital, countering 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, saying they were 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, adding that soldiers who tried to enter the neighborhood had "suffocated".

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

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 rebels 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 Assad, had supplied rebels with the 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," the television charged.

Meanwhile, U.N. Under Secretary General Angela Kane arrived in Syria's capital Saturday for talks aimed at establishing the terms of an inquiry into alleged chemical weapons attacks, an Agence France Presse journalist said.

Kane did not comment to reporters as she entered the Four Seasons hotel, only a few kilometers (miles) away from the site of Wednesday's reported chemical weapons strikes.

Her visit comes after U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon handed her the task and called for Syria's regime and its opponents to cooperate in the U.N. efforts to establish an investigation into the attacks said to have killed hundreds of people.

Opponents of Bashar Assad said the president's forces killed 1,300 people when they unleased chemical weapons east and southwest of Damascus in the attacks on Wednesday.

The Syrian government has strongly denied the accusations, but so far it has not said whether it will let U.N. inspectors visit the sites.