A suspected chlorine attack by Syrian government forces was blamed Wednesday for one death and respiratory injuries suffered by scores of civilians near rebel-held Aleppo. “The outcome of the battle meant that eastern Aleppo is now completely besieged for the second time in two months, and it coincided with the failure of talks between the United States and Russian Federation for a cease-fire deal in the contested city”. The city, Syria’s largest and once its commercial hub, has been the focus of fighting in recent months.
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The offensive, the report added, “cut all the supply and movement routes for terrorist groups from southern Aleppo province to the eastern neighborhoods and Ramosa”.
The opposition Aleppo Media Centre charged on its Twitter account that Sukkari was the target of a chlorine attack.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks daily developments in the Syrian war, said more than 70 people in Sukkari were left choking and needed treatment after the dropping of barrel bombs by Syrian government helicopters. But now it is under government control. After talks on the sidelines of the G20 leaders’ summit in Hangzhou, China last week, the United States accused Russian Federation of pulling back on issues that Washington thought had been resolved.
Since July 2015, rebels have held a part of Aleppo, but this past July 2016, government forces surrounded the rebel-held part of the city and have been conducting a siege. The Syrian government has denied previous accusations that it used chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war against President Bashar Assad.
The main Syrian opposition group, the Higher Negotiation Committee (HNC) met with global foreign leaders in London today to try and launch a blueprint for peace. It was not serious, it did not remain faithful to the cease-fire.
The evacuees were originally from the nearby Damascus suburb of Daraya but had been living in Moadamiyeh for almost three years. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing.
Once they had been searched and their identity cards were checked, the evacuees boarded government buses that took them to Harjalleh, another government-held area, near Damascus.
“Unimaginable crimes are occurring in Aleppo … pro-government aerial bombardments cause mass civilian casualties”, Commission Chairman Paulo Pinheiro told reporters in Geneva.
However, observers say the Syrian military’s campaign also aims to recapture areas in the northern and southern countryside of Aleppo in the face of Turkey’s perceived attempts to establish a safe zone in northern Syria. It says 88 prisoners were released, though 36 of them may be conscripted into the military.
The Kurdish-affiliated Hawar news agency said six Kurdish fighters were killed.
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Turkey sent tanks into Syria on August 24 as part of the so-called Euphrates Shield operation aimed at ousting Islamic State fighters and halting an advance by Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara sees as allies of the outlawed PKK that’s been waging a 30-year insurgency inside Turkey.
