Syrian state media later reported that five people had died and eight others had experienced breathing difficulties after artillery shells laced with toxic gases landed on the old city of Aleppo.
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Surrounded by regime troops in Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods since last week, rebel militia groups have launched a sustained attack to drive through government lines to connect with opposition territory in the west.
The anti-regime fighters are seeking to capture Ramussa, a district in Aleppo’s southwest suburbs, in a bid to cut off government forces and open a new route into the city for rebels.
Chemical weapons have also been put to use, with the Assad regime narrowly avoiding a United States intervention by surrendering its chemical arsenal after hundreds were killed by a chemical attack on the opposition-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013.
“On August 2, 2016 at 19 hours 05 minutes militants from the Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki group, considered by Washington as “moderate opposition”, launched poisonous materials from the Sukkari district towards the eastern part of Aleppo”, the ministry said. The United Nations said on Thursday that intensive diplomacy was going on to try to agree a humanitarian pause in the fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, and it hoped to see an agreement for a comprehensive humanitarian plan in the next few days.
We consider the proposal deeply flawed on humanitarian grounds and consider it [a] warning for the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) to urgently step up efforts to end the use of brutal siege tactics and illegal attacks on civilians.
The Russian military helicopter was downed in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province on Sunday, killing all five people on board in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria.
In Damascus, a visiting top Iranian lawmaker said the Syrian government and its allies seek to “liberate” tens of thousands of Aleppo’s residents from the grip of what he called terrorist groups.
Zakharova spoke out as the United Nations said the United States and Russian Federation were in intensive discussions to shore up Syria’s collapsed nationwide truce with their military experts trying to agree a cooperation plan “that would unlock the entire solution”.
The Russian military says it has informed the US that it believes rebels in the Syrian city of Aleppo have deployed “toxic substances“, BBC News reports.
Meanwhile a chilling video purporting to show the aftermath of the deadly toxic shelling in Aleppo emerged online on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the reports were “of great concern”.
The activists said the source of these missiles might be a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which deliberately targeted the camps.
The American government has yet to okay the mobilization of the rebels, to the dismay of some of the countries involved, the official said.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said the six hospitals were all located in the Aleppo governate and that patients had been killed in the bombings.
The People’s Protection Unit, or YPG, posted on its Facebook page photographs of the British man and identified him as Dean Carl Evans, saying he was killed on July 21.
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Dozens of western fighters have joined the YPG to fight ISIS. “He was just 7 or 8 years old”, he said.
