The attack late Wednesday on the city’s eastern Zabadieh neighborhood saw at least four barrel bombs dropped on the area, one of which purportedly released the chlorine gas.
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The attack came hours after the Russian military, which is backing the Bashar Assad regime, promised a daily three-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into besieged areas. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, of the Russian military’s General Staff, said the cease-fires will be observed from 10 a.m.to 1 p.m. local time starting Thursday.
Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement he was “concerned by reports of a new chemical attack that is said to have claimed four lives people and left dozens injured”.
A civilian breathes through an oxygen mask at al-Quds hospital, after a gas, believed to be chlorine, was dropped alongside barrel bombs on a neighbourhood of the Syrian city of Aleppo.
During the day Friday, airstrikes hit a market in the nearby town of Urem al-Kubra, killing at least six people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists on the ground. It had reports of two killed and several people suffering breathing difficulties – but made no mention of chlorine gas.
But it made no mention of the “humanitarian windows” announced by Russian Federation.
Regarding the current situation in Aleppo, where almost 300,000 residents are stranded and in need of humanitarian assistance, Haq said there have been indications of improvements but the overall conditions are risky. After the attack, rebels said government forces had used chlorine gas. But the odor grew stronger as they descended the stairs, so they returned to the higher floors to wait out the effects, he said, speaking to The Associated Press via a messaging service.
The challenge of verifying the use of chemical weapons in a war zone, particularly chlorine has hampered efforts to track their use.
The Syrian government and opposition also accused each other of using chlorine last week in Aleppo, where intense fighting that could determine the course of the five year war is unfolding.
Rudskoi said that fighting in Aleppo will cease for three hours daily to allow humanitarian aid deliveries.
A senior Russian senator yesterday said Moscow was planning to expand its Hmeimim airbase on Syria’s coast into a permanent facility.
Even as Moscow pledged to pause strikes around the divided second city, it carried out raids further east on the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa that a monitor said killed 24 civilians.
“The Russian air force bombed Raqqa with some 12 airstrikes today, a lot of them hit populated neighbourhoods and a crowded marketplace”, rights activist Abdullah al-Munassib told ARA News, adding that only few ISIS militants were killed in the raids.
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Since erupting in March 2011, Syria’s conflict has mutated into a brutal civil war that has killed more than 290,000 people and displaced more than a million.
