UN plea over 'chemical attack' in Syria

Damascus has asked the United Nations Secretary-General to appoint an independent technical mission to investigate an alleged chemical weapons attack by rebels in the country’s north.

Rebel spokesmen denied the government claim and blamed regime forces for Tuesday’s missile attack on Khan al-Assad, a village in northern Aleppo province.

Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, told reporters that he had asked Ban Ki-moon “to form a specialised, independent and neutral technical mission” to investigate the attack.

The US ambassador to Syria said that the Obama administration had no evidence that chemical weapons had been used.