SYRIA'S opposition coalition says President Bashar al-Assad's forces had dropped phosphorus bombs and napalm on civilians in rural Aleppo, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.

The alleged attack occurred as the United States and its European and Middle Eastern partners honed plans to punish Assad for a major poison gas attack last week on the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, that killed hundreds of civilians.

US TO GO IT ALONE WITH STRIKE SYRIA

Video footage uploaded on the Internet, apparently of Monday's attack, showed doctors frantically smearing white cream on the reddened skin of several screaming people, many of them young boys.

The report has not been independently confirmed. There have been previous unconfirmed reports of the use of phosphorus bombs by Assad's forces during Syria's conflict.

What is White phosphorus?

White phosphorus is a toxic substance used in industry to manufacture chemicals used in fertilisers and cleaning compounds.

It can be absorbed into the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact. It causes skin to melt away from the bone and can break down a victim's jawbone.

The substance can also stick to clothing or on the skin and continues to burn unchecked as particles are exposed to air.

Refugees flood to Turkey

The new attack comes as Turkey sent extra aid workers trained to identify and decontaminate chemical weapons victims to its border with Syria after last week's gas attack in Damascus.

Mustafa Aydogdu, of the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate told The Daily Mail a number of refugees crossing into Turkey in recent days via Cilvegozu, the nearest border gate to Aleppo, had burns and were being tested for chemical weapons exposure

"We have heard about the use of phosphorus but I can't confirm as yet that people who have been subject to a chemical attack have crossed into Turkey," he said.

Meanwhile, Britain has drafted a UN Security Council resolution authorising "necessary measures" to protect civilians in the country.

But the UK said the UN Security Council, of which it is a permanent member, should wait until UN inspectors report back on evidence of chemical weapons.

NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the use of chemical weapons in Syria "cannot go unanswered".

"Information available from a wide variety of sources points to the Syrian regime as responsible for the use of chemical weapons in these attacks," Mr Rasmussen said in a statement after a meeting of NATO ambassadors.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said the country will turn into a "graveyard of the invaders'' if there is foreign military intervention.

Syria will "surprise the aggressors as it surprised them in'' the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Arab forces caught Israel off guard, and become "the graveyard of the invaders,'' he said.

The "colonialist threats'' of Western powers "do not terrorise us because of the will and determination of the Syrian people, who will not accept being humiliated,'' Halqi said, quoted on state television.

US Vice-President Joe Biden said for the first time that last week's attack could only have been perpetrated by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces.

"There is no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria - the Syrian regime," Biden said.

"The president believes and I believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenceless men, women and children should and must be held accountable."

The Syrian Government has denied using sarin shells to bomb the area, but the UN's special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, says "it does seem likely some substance was used".



