Fighting is occurring in Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo on Thursday despite a Russian promise to stop military action to allow for humanitarian aid, emergency officials said.
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De Mistura, asked about the reports, replied: “It’s really not for me to assess who did it and whether it actually took place, although there is a lot of evidence that it actually did take place”.
A fierce battle for control of the city broke out on Friday when rebels staged a major assault to break through a month-long government siege of the city’s rebel-held east, where about 250,000 people are thought to be living.
Both Syrian warplanes and Russian Federation, which has intervened militarily on Mr Assad’s behalf, have been bombarding opposition areas since rebel forces aligned with jihadi groups to advance on the regime-held side of the city and cut off their supply routes.
At least four people died and many suffered breathing difficulties when a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped alongside barrel bombs on a neighborhood of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, a hospital and a civil defense group told Reuters. The fighting has cut water pumps in the city as well, leaving residents without a reliable source of running water during a region-wide heatwave.
There have since been numerous allegations of chemical weapons being used against civilians, both by Assad’s regime and the rebels.
Chlorine, a common household substance, is not a banned substance under the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons treaty. At least six people were killed and dozens of others were injured.
The air strikes targeted the gatherings of the rebels, killing “large numbers of them and destroying armoured vehicles outfitted with machine guns”, state run news agency Sana said.
The UN confirmed the talks hours after a three-hour daily ceasefire, announced by Russian Federation to allow humanitarian and aid deliveries in the city, reportedly failed to take effect.
He said that a lot of time would be required because so many people were in need, requiring large convoys to travel the extremely risky Castello road, the last route into rebel-held parts of the city.
AFP’s correspondent in the east said trucks carrying food were unable to enter the city Thursday because of intense bombardment.
Fighting has escalated in Aleppo in recent days, with rebels severing the government’s main route to the west of the city. But he praised Moscow’s agreement to meet the United Nations, along with Washington, which backs the opposition, to discuss a way to allow humanitarian supplies to be delivered.
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“The children”, he said, “all of us were choking”.
