The Russian claim came on the heels of reports that two dozen people had suffered breathing difficulties in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb, after a barrel bomb attack there that residents claimed used chlorine gas.
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Clashes have been reported in and around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo despite efforts by Russian Federation to halt military action to allow in aid.
The United States Holocaust Museum is calling for the global community to protect civilians in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, which has become a battleground for rebels and the Assad regime.
The United Nations immediately said that three hours is not long enough to help the people and asked for 48 hours of ceasefire.
An estimated 1.2 million people live in zones controlled by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in Aleppo, with about 250,000 people in the rebel-held eastern districts.
Helicopters also dropped explosive barrels on the neighborhoods of Seif al Dawla and Zubdiya late on Wednesday evening, according to the the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Local activist groups reported raids by government warplanes on Hreitan, on the northern outskirts of Aleppo.
“We would welcome any pause that successfully facilitates delivering vitally needed humanitarian supplies, but such a cease-fire must be observed by all parties”, the U.S. State Department said.
Numerous chlorine gas attacks have been reported during the Syrian civil war, as well as the use of other chemical weapons, with opposition forces targeted in the vast majority of reported cases.
Responding to the Russian ceasefire plan, United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien said Wednesday he was willing to consider the Russian plan, but that a 48-hour pause in fighting was needed to meet all the humanitarian needs in the Syrian city, Syria’s most populous before the war.
Fighting struck the southern edges of the battered city as opposition fighters and government forces gear up for a major protracted battle that could mark a turning point in the five-year war.
The World Health Organisation said Syria was the most unsafe place for health care workers to operate past year, with 135 attacks on health facilities and workers in 2015.
Last week, the defence ministry of Russian Federation, a staunch ally of Assad, accused rebels in Aleppo of killing seven people in an attack using a “poisonous agent”.
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The lack of proper equipment or treatment options meant that “children and wounded people would die in our arms without us being able to give them anything”.
