According to a UN statement, unidentified snipers fired multiple shots at the UN experts shortly after they set out from the hotel on Monday, forcing them to suspended their inspection and return.
No one was injured in the shooting. The Syrian TV has blamed militants fighting against the government for the attack.
“The team returned safely back to the government checkpoint. The team will return to the area after replacing the vehicle,” said the UN.
The UN investigators were expected to take soil, blood, urine and tissue samples for laboratory testing from five locations in eastern Damascus, where hundreds of people are reported to be killed in a chemical attack last week.
The Syrian government and the militants had agreed to a ceasefire to allow the UN team to collect evidence.
Meanwhile, medical sources say the UN investigators have entered the site of the alleged poison gas attack near Damascus and have tested ten of those injured in the chemical attack.
Hundreds of people were killed and scores of others injured in a chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar on August 21.
Both the Syrian government and the foreign-backed opposition accuse each other of being behind the deadly attack.
The Damascus government, however, has vehemently denied the accusation, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.
In March, dozens of people were killed in a chemical attack in the northern province of Aleppo. A Russian-led inquiry said that militants were behind the deadly attack.
HM/SS
Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/26/320567/snipers-in-syria-shoot-at-un-experts/
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