World in outrage against Syria chemical massacre

Countries across the world and international organizations have reacted to a suspected gas attack in Syria that killed some 58 people, including 11 children, amid calls for international action. 

The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun in the northwestern city of Idlib also left dozens suffering respiratory problems and symptoms including vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hours later, air strikes hit a hospital in the town where doctors were treating victims of the attack, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said, bringing down rubble on top of medics as they worked.

The incident brought swift international condemnation, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault demanding an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the "monstrous" attack.

EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said April 4 that the regime of Bashar al-Assad bears "primary responsibility" over the suspected chemical attack.

"Today the news is awful," Mogherini said in an interview with media organizations in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU-U.N. conference that was meant to focus on the post-conflict situation in Syria.

"But this is a dramatic reminder of the fact that the situation on the ground still continues to be dramatic in many different parts of Syria," Mogherini said. "And obviously, there is a primary responsibility there from the regime and first and foremost because it has the primary responsibility of protecting its people and not attacking its people. The issue of accountability is key for the EU but also for the conference itself." 

The observatory said the attack on a residential part of Khan Sheikhun came in the early hours of the...