A video posted to YouTube apparently showed several men struggling to breathe in the aftermath.
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“Medium-sized barrels fell containing toxic gases”.
At least 40 Syrian civilians have been reported killed since Wednesday in the besieged city, local activists told Al Jazeera.
The Syrian government and its Russian allies were not immediately available for comment.
The observatory said 25 civilians were killed in Aleppo and Idlib on Wednesday by Syrian and Russian forces including 10 children, while 10 civilians including 4 children were killed overnight in rebel shelling of government-controlled districts in western Aleppo. If successful, the rebels would likely use their advantage as a bargaining chip to secure humanitarian access to the eastern half of the city, which they control, rather than attempt to break the siege itself by military means.
The Unicef statement came as Russian Federation said it has informed the United States that insurgents attacked a government-held neighbourhood of Aleppo using toxic gas, killing at least seven people.
The observatory said that Russian aircraft were behind the strikes at dawn. But the official said there was growing confidence it was such an attack, and that chlorine was likely used. “Certainly, if it’s true, it would be extremely serious”.
Government fighters have taken control of two hilltops and two small villages in the southwest suburbs, said monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s parliament, urged the U.N.to help in letting those people get out of Aleppo’s rebel-held areas through already identified crossing points.
No group has claimed responsibility for downing the Mi-8 military transport helicopter. While the group is looking to get closer to other rebel factions, they are still considered a terrorist group by Syria and the worldwide community and have so far been explicitly excluded from any peace talks or future peace deals in Syria.
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized”.
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.
Moscow and Damascus denied any involvement.
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Later that year the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January 2016.
