The Syrian army, however, has fought back, aided by Russian air strikes.
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Monitors at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said barrel bombs fell on Saraqeb late on Monday, injuring a large number of citizens.
“The regime is launching counter-attacks to absorb the fierce rebel offensive”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman. Several rebel factions, including the Levant Conquest Front- formerly known as the Nusra Front and linked to al-Qaida – announced they had taken government positions there and killed soldiers.
Aleppo’s southern edges have been ravaged by intense fighting in recent days as rebels seek to ease the government siege and cut off the regime’s own access route into the rest of the northern province.
Rudskoi said 324 civilians so far have left the militant-controlled part of Aleppo through corridors set by the Syrian government last Thursday.
More than 40 civilians have been killed in opposition bombardment of those neighborhoods since Sunday, July 31. Rebel fighters trying to break the Aleppo siege and government forces encircling the city blamed each other for using the poisonous gas, believed to be chlorine.
“We are now overlooking the al-Ramouseh area but Russian jets are intensifying their bombing, which is holding us back from moving quickly”, said Abu Rakan, military commander from Failaq al Sham brigade.
Last month, two Russian airmen were killed in central Homs province when their Mi-25 helicopter was shot down by what the Defense Ministry said were Islamic State fighters. The United Nations said the encirclement of rebel-held areas of deeply divided Aleppo traps almost 300,000 residents, making it the largest besieged area in war-torn Syria.
Later, state news agency SANA said rebels had fired rockets armed with toxic gas on the government-held old quarter of Aleppo city, killing five people and causing eight breathing difficulties.
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the opposition critical of the government, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the one behind the chemical attacks, Reuters reported.
The Civil Defence spokesman said it was the second time Saraqeb had been hit by toxic gas.
Haq said the United Nations delivered food and health items to 71,000 people in the hard-to-reach town of Houla in Homs governorate on Sunday. The government denies that it has launched chlorine gas attacks.
A neurologist, Dr. Ibrahim al-Assad, said he treated 16 of the 29 cases brought to his hospital on Monday night, most of whom were women and children.
Two activist groups the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees say rebels shot down the helicopter over Idlib.
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On April 7, 23 people lost their lives and over 100 others suffered breathing difficulties when Daesh terrorists carried out a chemical attack against members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo.
