Doctors working in the besieged Syrian town of Aleppo warned that the use of chemical weapons is becoming the new normal in the conflict, after reports of yet another chlorine gas attack killed three people and injured dozens more.
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At least 45 civilians were killed in Aleppo and to the west of the city, and another 22 died in neighbouring Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.
Rebel groups then attacked the army’s positions in a cement factory on the city’s southwest, adjacent to the mouth of a corridor into opposition-held east Aleppo that insurgents had opened up a week ago, breaking a government siege.
Injured children are taken to the few remaining medical facilities in rebel-controlled Aleppo, but instead of being safe havens they have become targets.
After a almost three-week siege, rebel forces took Ramussa on August 6, linking up with opposition-held neighbourhoods.
The increased fighting has raised deep concerns for the estimated 1.5 million civilians still in Aleppo, including some 250,000 in rebel-controlled areas.
Russian Federation launched air strikes last September in support of Assad, helping the regime to consolidate its hold on loyal areas and regain some territory.
The sources added that the shelling targeted the city of Saraqib in the eastern part of the province, and Talaadah, including the northern countryside, as well as Sarmada, near the Turkish border.
Here in Damascus, there was no mention of these incidents anywhere on state-run media.
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IS took control of large areas of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, with the group emerging from the chaos created by the Syrian conflict.
