The Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue workers’ group, claims government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on the Sukari neighbourhood, a rebel-held area of Aleppo, on Tuesday. The Syrian government has routinely denied the accusations. The Syrian regime, which has been engaged in a more than five-year-long civil war against a coalition of rebel groups, has consistently denied that it uses chemical weapons of any sort, including chlorine, which are prohibited under worldwide treaties.
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Syrian government forces have been accused of a chlorine gas attack in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Attack comes soon after United Nations report confirmed regime already used chemicals twice before. The report said 10 of the patients were in critical care, including a pregnant woman. Multiple children appear in the video, breathing through oxygen masks. The videos could not be independently verified by CBS News, but they mirrored many similar videos posted online after previous attacks also allegedly using chlorine.
If sustained, the advance would reverse almost all the gains rebels made in a sudden push last month, tighten the blockade over rebel-held eastern Aleppo and ease access for the army into government-held western districts through the city’s south.
Rescue workers also said that four members of the White Helmets volunteer rescue group had been killed responding to attacks in the past day in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, both in “double-tap” strikes that hit the area a second time to target rescuers.
A Syrian boy suffering from breathing difficulties is treated at a make-shift hospital in Aleppo. It says 88 prisoners were released, though 36 of them may be conscripted into the military.
“As a result, almost 100 people, including women and children, have been admitted to Sukkeri’s Sahra Hospital”, he said. “It is a crowded neighbourhood”. If high concentrations of the chemical enter the lungs it can cause death.
A UN-led inquiry last month found the Syrian government had used chlorine in attacks on at least two occasions.
Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
“We are concerned by recent allegations of use of chemical agents in Aleppo”, said in a statement Ahmet Üzümcü, director of the OPCW, agency supported by the United Nations based in The Hague.
Russian Federation intervened in Syria a year ago to prop up the regime of President Bashar Assad, a long-standing ally whose overstretched army was rapidly losing ground to rebel forces. It has so far resulted in the seizure of a 56-mile corridor within Syria near the Turkish border, between the cities of Azaz and Jarabulus.
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“Continued U.S. inaction to protect the civilians of Syria means that our plight is being wilfully tolerated by those in the global corridors of power”. “We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers, we need your action”. The U.S. supports rebels fighting to overthrow the regime and Russian Federation has backed the Assad regime.
