There are reports Wednesday of a chlorine-gas attack on Al-Sukkari, a rebel-held neighborhood in Aleppo, allegedly carried out by government forces, according to groups that operate in the city and a monitoring organization.
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Harrowing footage distributed by the Syrian Civil Defense – also known as the White Helmets – showed young children and other victims being rushed to the hospital in the arms of rescuers, gasping desperately for air as they are given oxygen masks.
An official in Syria’s rebel-held Aleppo said Wednesday that at least one person had died from a suspected chlorine attack reported a day earlier.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said yesterday that it was disturbed by new claims over the use by the Syrian regime in Aleppo of chlorine gas.
“I saw the horror of all the people”.
The opposition Aleppo Media Centre charged on its Twitter account that Sukkari was the target of a chlorine attack.
The use of the widely available chemical in warfare was a war crime, he said.
The resolution followed Syria’s approval of a Russian proposal to relinquish its chemical weapons stockpile and join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In late August, according to CNN, an investigation by the United Nations stated that both the Syrian national air force and ISIS militants have used chemical weapons in Syria.
“Barrel bombs – sometimes filled with chlorine – are the biggest killer of civilians in Syria today”.
Foreign ministers from the Friends of Syria group of countries, which have supported the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, will also attend. There have been two reported deaths, and though most of the victims were discharged after a few hours, at least ten remain in intensive care. The UN investigation specified one example of when ISIS militants “had used mustard gas”, and two cases “where regime forces had used chlorine as a chemical weapon”. The Islamic State is not a player in the city.
Aleppo has been divided for years into government and rebel sectors, but President Bashar al-Assad’s army has put the opposition areas under siege and now hopes to capture the whole city in what would be a devastating blow to his enemies.
Syria and its ally Russian Federation have accused Islamist militants of using chlorine in the past.
“There are more actors today in Syria with the availability of the substances and the ability to mix them and use them, if they so choose, as chemical weapons; and this is something very worrying”, said Virginia Gamba, head of the three-member UN Joint Investigative Mechanism that confirmed chemical weapons use in Syria.
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The military effort to retake fallen areas in southern Aleppo came as the world powers, such as Russian Federation and the United States, were working to establish a broad ceasefire in Syria, despite no breakthrough yet.
