Post date: Aug 22, 2013 3:7:23 PM
Following the alleged gas attack in Damascus, a Free Syrian Army spokesman says PresidentBashar al-Assad will stop at nothing to crush the uprising and rebels therefore need more military support from abroad.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (AUGUST 22, 2013) (REUTERS) - Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a poison gas attack that killed hundreds on Wednesday (August 21).
Estimates for the death toll have ranged from 500 to well over double that number, which would make it the world's most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s.Syrian authorities have denied government forces used chemical weapons.
Speaking in Turkey, Free Syrian Army political coordinator Louay Meqdad said Assad would stop at nothing to suppress the Syrian rebels.
"Today I think all the liberated areas are in real danger. North, south, and Homs province. All the liberated areas are in real danger because Bashar al-Assad today he has no red lines, he has nothing to lose. He wants to kill the revolutionaries whatever it takes, he wants to destroy the revolution whatever it takes."
While President Barack Obama has declared a "red line" over Syrian use of chemical weapons, U.S. officials have suggested that Washington was unlikely to respond without clear-cut evidence of such use - evidence that may be very hard to come by.
Meqdad said he was expecting western countries to supply more military aid in the future.
"We are receiving some shipments from some countries, and exactly from some Arabic countries. Till now the Europe countries especially France, and Britain, and the United States governments, they didn't get any serious step in this field to give us the proper weapons that we need or the weapons that we need. But we have clear promises from these governments that they will help us soon and they will send us some equipment as soon as possible."
The alleged gas attack prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York. It did not explicitly demand a U.N. investigation, although it said "clarity" was needed and welcomed U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's calls for a prompt investigation by the inspection team inSyria.