Syrian fighters from a rebel group considered “moderate” by Washington are responsible for using toxic gas shells that killed seven and injured 23 in Aleppo on Tuesday, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense.
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In the surrounding province, 24 people reportedly suffered breathing difficulties in Saraqeb, a town 50 kilometres south of Aleppo, after a barrel bomb attack on Tuesday, the observatory said.
The latest civilian deaths come as rebels press an assault meant to break a government siege of opposition-held Aleppo that began on July 17 and has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.
Very few civilians had left Aleppo after Russia’s offer, he said.
Opposition monitoring groups reported intense airstrikes and shelling on Aleppo and its outskirts. United States officials believe that chlorine was used.
Once Syria’s largest city, Aleppo has been roughly divided between government control in the west and rebel control in the east since mid-2012.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, said part of the base had been taken.
Referring to the strikes on hospitals and medical facilities on both sides of the front lines, he said, “We have now sunk in the Syrian war to a new low. Each of these assaults constitutes a war crime”, said Widney Brown, the director of programs for PHR, according to the release.
Another 42 people, including 11 children, have been killed in strikes on eastern Aleppo, it said.
In the battlefield, the Syrian opposition said on Thursday that it launched its “fourth phase” of the Aleppo battle.
“The opposition offensive has not achieved the results that were expected at this stage”, he said. Russian Federation claims that rebel groups have used “toxic gas” in the battle for the city.
Rebels have launched a fierce counteroffensive to break the siege, which has trapped tens of thousands of residents amid warnings of a potential catastrophe.
Four years after rebels captured much of the city’s eastern districts, government forces aided by massive Russian air power and Iranian-backed militias have encircled the area and urged rebels to turn themselves in. The activists said the source of these missiles might be a Russian reconnaissance aircraft, which deliberately targeted the camps. And that perhaps is the reason why the report about two chemical attacks in Syria on Wednesday was treated as “routine news” in many parts of the world. It said the agency continues to examine any credible reports it receives, including pertinent information that might be shared by state parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Rebels detonated a bomb in a tunnel underneath a government position in the Ramouseh area, the observatory said.
The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events.
The groups waging the offensive – including militants from Al Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate and the powerful Islamist Ahrar Al Sham – have promised to end the government encirclement of eastern parts of Aleppo.
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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.
