Evidence of chemical attack ‘undeniable’

US secretary of state John Kerry said yesterday that the evidence of a massive deadly chemical attack last week was “undeniable” and accused the Syrian government of trying to cover it up, signalling the United States was edging closer to a possible military response.

In the most forceful US reaction yet after Wednesday’s suspected gas attack outside Damascus, Kerry said that President Barack Obama “believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.”

Kerry spoke after UN chemical weapons experts interviewed and took blood samples yesterday from victims of last week’s apparent chemical attack in a rebel-held suburb of Syria’s capital, after the inspectors themselves survived sniper fire that hit their convoy.