Syrian Civil Defense, a volunteer rescue group regularly involved in the aftermath of attacks in the troubled Middle Eastern nation, said the chlorine bombs were dropped on the civilian-populated al-Sukkari neighborhood.
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He said the cylinders fell in the crowded al-Sukkari neighbourhood and that at least 80 civilians were transported to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties.
“Me and my children were all coughing and struggling to breathe after the attack took place”, resident Mariam Khawaja told Middle East Eye on Tuesday.
A suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held neighbourhood in the Syrian city of Aleppo has caused at least one death and dozens of cases of suffocation, according to local activists and medical sources.
The Civil Defence accused the government of another chlorine attack in August.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence using sources on the ground, said medical sources had reported 70 cases of suffocation. It found two instances where regime forces had used chlorine as a chemical weapon, and one where ISIS had used mustard gas.
“Accusations by the opposition that the Syrian government dropped chlorine gas in a barrel bomb on Aleppo are likely to further increase tension in the city that is now besieged by government troops”, Al Jazeera’s Ahelbarra said. But the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on whether to impose sanctions on the government in line with a September 2013 resolution authorizing sanctions that can be militarily enforced for any use of chemical weapons in Syria. That averted a US military strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.
Rebel-held Aleppo has been pounded by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, backed by Russian air power.
Fighting in the deeply contested city of Aleppo has not let up despite worldwide efforts to establish a cease-fire.
Government forces put eastern Aleppo under siege on Sunday for a second time since July after advancing against rebels on the city’s outskirts.
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Kalin told private broadcaster NTV Tuesday that the initial plan was for a 48-hour ceasefire. Turkey has pushed for a safe zone in Syria since at least 2014.
