Massacre of the innocents

World leaders have come under pressure to take concrete action after hundreds of people were killed in a chemical weapons attack in Syria.

As many as 1,300 people — including dozens of children — were reported to have been killed in the attack by government forces on rebel-held suburbs of the capital Damascus. The country has been in the grip of a civil war for more than two years and about 100,000 people have been killed.

Pictures by citizen journalists circulated on social media sites and websites purported to be from the sites of the attacks in Arbeen and Douma City. Some showed the bodies of many children, some ashen but showing no injuries, and others with foam coming from their mouths. The Associated Press verified some of the images.