Chuck Hagel says Syria used chemical weapons on 'small scale' - live blog Chemical weapons The head of the Free Syrian Army, General Salim Idriss, claims to have proof that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons in Homs, Aleppo and outside Damascus. Speaking to CNN he said: "We took some samples of the soil and of blood. The injured people were observed by doctors and the samples were tested and it was very clear that the regime used chemical weapons. Proof of sarin use would increase pressure for intervention from the Obama administration which has long claimed the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would represent a "red line." Damascus Syrian government forces have seized Otaiba a strategic town east of Damascus, breaking a critical weapons supply route for the rebels, Reuters reports citing activists and fighters. It quoted one fighter as saying: "The disaster has struck, the army entered Otaiba. The regime has managed to turn off the weapons tap. The price of a bullet will go from 50 Syrian pounds to 1,000 Syrian pounds (6.5 pounds) now, but we must pay and retake it. It's the main if not the only route. Aleppo The minaret of a 12th-century mosque in Aleppo has been destroyed in fighting in the city leaving the once-soaring stone tower a pile of rubble and twisted metal scattered in the tiled courtyard. Assad's regime and anti-government activists traded blame for the attack on the Umayyad mosque in the heart of Aleppo's walled Old City, a Unesco World Heritage site. A new Guardian picture gallery tracks the damage to the mosque. Video footage shows rebel fighters inside the compound of the mosque pointing to absent minaret. Unesco's director-general Irina Bokova expressed her deep distress over reports of the continuing destruction of Aleppo. Five of Syria's six World Heritage sites have been damaged in the fighting, according to Unesco, the UN's cultural agency. Looters have broken into one of the world's best-preserved Crusader castles, Crac des Chevaliers, and ruins in the ancient city of Palmyra have been damaged. The disappearance of two Aleppo bishops highlights how Syria's Christians are becoming a trapped minority in a disintegrating country, writes Ian Black. The bishops' abduction combines specific Christian concerns with the general phenomenon of lawlessness at a time when the regime is emphasising - critics say exaggerating - the Islamist aspects of the uprising. Officials in Damascus focus sharply on Jabhat al-Nusra. Assad himself told a delegation of visiting Lebanese politicians on Sunday that the Syrian army was now facing "al-Qaida" and played down the role of the FSA. In recent days, state TV broadcast an interview with a captured Nusra leader who warned that Christians faced three stark choices: to convert to Islam, to pay a tax as a minority, or to be killed. "Everyone is afraid of these extremists," said George Nashawati of the St Gregory Orthodox Society for Orphans and the Elderly in Damascus. But especially Christians. Look what happened in Iraq. It could happen here. However, a priest from Harasta described how Muslim neighbours had asked to shelter in his church during fighting Diplomacy Syria has accused international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi of siding with the Syrian opposition after he called for Assad to step down in 2014 after his current term as president ends. In a private but leaked briefing to the UN security council last Friday Brahimi also criticised the Assad regime's "slow and confused" response to an offer of talks from opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib. Syria's state media said: "Brahimi shouldn't take sides, especially if the side he takes is composed - as everyone now knows - of militant groups belonging to Jabhat al-Nusra which is affiliated with al-Qaida and which practices terrorism against the Syria people." Those comments bear out a warning Brahimi gave in the closed-door briefing to the security council. A leaked text of the briefing quoted him saying: Until recently, the debate was moving back and forth from prediction of imminent fall of the regime to claims that the armed opposition was loosing momentum. I fear the debate may now shift to arguments about the importance of al-Qaida and associated groups and how that will, or should, affect the attitude of regional and international players. I hope that, the tree is not going to hide the wood. To learn who is who in the confrontation in and about Syria is necessary and important. I think it is fairly certain that the regional dimension of the conflict in Syria is growing: features of a proxy War are more and more apparent but the conflict remains essentially a savage civil war between Syrians, and the sectarian dimensions of the crisis are perhaps more important to watch and understand than the participation of foreigners in the struggle. As for extremism, Syrians and international partners have ever reason to be concerned over its effects on the present situation and on its possible long term influence. The way to contain extremisms and reduce its influence is to more actively act to end the conflict. Human Rights Watch reports a sharp increase in executions in Iraq which it says points to a failure of Iraq's justice system to meet international fair trial standards. It said there have been 50 executions in the last month.