The Chicago Tribune reported that it had not been independently verified that government warplanes had dropped chlorine gas bombs on the people in the Sukkari neighborhood of Aleppo. “For them, the UN Security Council must follow through on its demand to stop the barrel bombs, by introducing a “no-fly zone” if necessary”, Raed Saleh said in a statement on their website.
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Although the chemical attack has not been verified by independent monitors, the respiratory problems reported by activists and residents on the ground indicate the use of chlorine gas, which is banned by worldwide conventions.
At least 80 civilians were taken to hospitals and treated for breathing difficulties, he said.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the violence using sources on the ground, said medical sources had reported 70 cases of suffocation. “The regime denies using chemical arms”. The report said 10 of the patients are in critical care, including a pregnant woman.
Initial reports recorded more than 150 casualties suffering chlorine gas inhalation, including many children and women. The Syrian government denied having carried out the attack.
“The barrel bombs are basically liquid cylinders of chlorine that they throw out a helicopter”, de Bretton-Gordon said. That averted a USA military strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has been backed by Russian airpower.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey could take part in a future operation to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State group militants.
The Civil Defence accused the government of two other suspected chlorine gas attacks in August.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said a year ago that he was “absolutely certain” the Syrian government had attacked its own people with chlorine – an accusation the regime has denied.
A Syrian foreign ministry statement said Damascus was ready to cooperate with a team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) now in Syria and looking into incidents Damascus blames on “terror groups and their foreign operatives”.
The inquiry also found that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has used sulphur mustard gas.
As global concern has mounted, the United Nations has renewed a call for weekly 48-hour humanitarian ceasefires to allow aid into the city, but efforts by Russian Federation and the United States to agree terms for a truce are dragging.
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Others fled toward government-controlled Hama city, where four mosques were converted into temporary shelters, OCHA said.
