The US, on Saturday, moved closer to military intervention in Syria with President Barack Obama saying he was considering a "limited, narrow" strike with "no boots on the ground" even as UN experts probing the alleged use of chemical weapons left the war-torn country.
Obama said Washington was "looking at the possibility of a limited, narrow act" and there would be no "long-term campaign".
"We're not considering any open ended commitment. We're not considering any boots on the ground approach," Obama told reporters yesterday. He emphasised that he had "not made any decisions" about what actions the US will take.
He said whatever the US does, it would not be a major operation. "We have consulted with allies. We have consulted with Congress," Obama said, indicating an attack on Syria is imminent.
Emerging from a situation room meeting headed by Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that the US would not seek approval of the UN Security Council for an attack because of the opposition from Russia to the use of military force.
"Because of the guaranteed Russian obstructionism of any action through the UN Security Council, UN cannot galvanise the world to act as it should," he said.
United Nations weapons inspectors left Syria for Lebanon today and were expected to brief Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban has said he will present their findings to the UNSC, but he wants to wait until a final report is completed. It could take as long as a week, officials said.
US leaders indicated that they had adequate information about the use of chemical weapons and were determined to act. "I have said before, and I meant what I said, that the world has an obligation to make sure that we maintain the norm against the use of chemical weapons," Obama said.
Kerry laid out a raft of what Washington said was a "high confidence" intelligence assessment about the attack.
The main findings of the released unclassified summary stated that the attack by President Bashar al-Assad's regime on August 21 killed 1,429 people, including 426 children, and Syrian military chemical weapons personnel were operating in the area three days before the incident.
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