Obama decides US should attack Syria

US President Barack Obama said Saturday that he has decided the United States should launch military strikes against Syria after the American intelligence community claimed Damascus used chemical weapons against foreign-backed militants.

The rhetoric of war against Syria primarily intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

However, Damascus has categorically rejected the claim, and announced that the chemical attack had actually been carried out by the militants themselves as a black operation.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that Washington is still seeking an "international coalition" for a potential attack on Syria.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria that started in 2011.

On Wednesday, the British government, the closest US ally, had announced that its support for military intervention in Syria would require a second vote in the country’s parliament. A first non-binding vote in the British legislature on August 29 rejected British presence in a potential war on Syria.

On Friday, NATO also distanced itself from participating in any military intervention in Syria, with the chief of the Western military coalition, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, saying he did not “foresee any NATO role” in an international war on Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and a total of 7.8 million of others displaced due to the violence.