Another emergency aid group, Syria Civil Defense, posted a video on YouTube showing people being handed oxygen masks.
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Syria Civil Defence workers, who went to the scene of the attack, said they suspected it was chlorine but could not verify that.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also claimed that barrel bombs were dropped on Saraqeb, and noted that a large number of civilians were injured.
Assad’s government and its Russian allies declared a joint humanitarian operation for the besieged area on Thursday, bombarding it with leaflets telling fighters to surrender and civilians to leave.
Meanwhile, a Syrian military official says the army repelled a rebel attack in Handarat, north of Aleppo. The attacks appear unrelated, and the reports suggest they were launched by opposite sides, with one an attack launched by rebels against government-held parts of Aleppo, and another apparently by a Russian military helicopter.
Three crew and two officers were returning to Hmeimim base in Idlib province when the helicopter was brought down by ground fire.
The attack by Russian warplanes comes after a Mi-8 transport helicopter was shot down over the Syrian province of Idlib on Monday, resulting in the death of five soldiers.
No group has claimed responsibility for the downing of the helicopter. Chemical agents have been used several times since then, and both the regime and rebels accuse each other of using such weapons but deny doing so themselves.
Rescuers and doctors in rebel-held Saraqib, a town in the northwestern Idlib province, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Aleppo, reported dozens of cases of severe breathing difficulties, saying the symptoms pointed to a chlorine gas attack. “If they lose, it will be hard for them to launch a new assault to break the siege”, Abdel Rahman said. All five people onboard the helicopter were killed.
The Kremlin spokesman also refused to comment on US State Secretary John Kerry’s recent statements that Moscow and Damascus should refrain from offensive operations in Syria, as well as similar statements made by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
A quarter of a million civilians still live in Aleppo’s opposition-controlled eastern neighborhoods, effectively under siege since the army, aided by Iranian-backed militias, cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.
“The daily reality confirms that all the global agreements and previous security-council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime”.
Russian Federation took many by surprise when it announced a drawdown from Syria in March 2016 amid concerns that Moscow is seeking to use Syria as a bargaining chip to resolve the Ukraine question, at the expense of Iran’s interests in Syria.
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Opposition activists said intense fighting was still ongoing in Aleppo on Monday.
