White House, European Union condemn Syria chemical attack, blame Assad

The White House on Tuesday confirmed a "reprehensible" and "intolerable" chemical attack had taken place in Syria and pinned the blame squarely on Bashar al-Assad`s regime.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said President Donald Trump had been briefed extensively on the attack, and suggested it was in the "best interest" of the Syrians for Assad not to lead the country.

"Today's chemical attack in Syria against innocent people, including women and children, is reprehensible," Spicer said, saying the administration was "confident" in its assessment that Assad was to blame.

Earlier today, the European Union's top diplomat Federica Mogherini said that Assad held 'primary responsibility', after a suspected gas attack killed at least 58 people.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council will be briefed tomorrow at the request of Britain and France, on a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria.

A suspected gas attack, believed to be by Syrian government jets, killed at least 58 people including 11 children under the age of eight in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday.

However, the Syrian military source strongly denied the army had used any such weapons. 

The attack caused many people to choke or faint, and some had foam coming out of their mouths, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing medical sources who described it as a sign of a gas attack. 

The air strikes on the town of Khan Sheikhoun, in the south of rebel-held Idlib, also wounded more than 60 people, said the Observatory, a British-based war monitoring group.