UN weapons inspectors leave Syria as US claim almost 1,500 were killed in chemical attack

 UN weapons inspectors investigating last week's alleged chemical weapons strike outside Damascus left Syria early on Saturday as the US claimed the attack had killed 1,429 people, including 426 children.

The team departed hours after US President Barack Obama said he is weighing “limited and narrow” action against a Syrian regime that the administration has bluntly accused of launching the deadly attack.

But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government said America was "full of lies" and accused opposition rebel groups of committing the attack.

The UN personnel entered Lebanon from Syria through the Masnaa border crossing and then drove in a 13-car convoy to the Beirut airport.

After four days of on-site inspections, the team wrapped up its investigation on Friday into the suspected chemical weapons attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on 21 August. The experts take with them blood and urine samples from victims as well as soil samples from the affected areas for examination in European laboratories.

The inspectors' departure brings the looming confrontation between the US and President Bashar Assad's regime one step closer to coming to a head.

US secretary of State John Kerry cited a US intelligence assessment that said: "The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21, August, 2013.

"We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack.

"A preliminary U.S. government assessment determined that 1,429 people were killed in the chemical weapons attack, including at least 426 children, though this assessment will certainly evolve as we obtain more information."

The report added that the Syrian regime "maintains a stockpile of numerous chemicals", including Sarin gas.

Obama has said that if he opts for a military strike, any operation would be limited in scope and only aimed at punishing Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons.

But any US action carries the potential to trigger retaliation by the Syrian regime or its proxies against US allies in the region, such as Jordan, Turkey and Israel. That would inject a dangerous new dynamic into a Syrian civil war that has already killed more than 100,000 people and created nearly 2 million refugees.

Independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-easthtml