Russian Federation claims that rebel groups have used “toxic gas” in the battle for the city.
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The SAMS report, released in March, documented 161 chemical attacks in Syria, and linked the vast majority of them and the resulting civilian casualties to the Assad government.
The army said it had foiled the attack on the artillery base and two major barracks and that hundreds of insurgents had been killed and much of their equipment and tanks destroyed.
Rebel shelling of government areas have killed 40 people, including 22 women and children, in the past 48 hours, the observatory said.
Opposition activists in Aleppo said government forces struck several makeshift hospitals in the city, Syria’s largest and once commercial centre.
The government siege of opposition-held districts began on July 17 and has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis.
Half the country’s population has been forced to flee their homes with an estimated 5 million seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
While burning tires is hardly a longterm air-defense strategy that any military commander would approve, it certainly could complicate Russian and Syrian bombing runs as they fly low and drop unguided munitions.
Despite fierce fighting, they made little progress against regime forces, said the Observatory’s director Rami Abdul Rahman.
If it does not, “Russia will have shown itself very clearly to be an irresponsible actor on the world stage that is supporting a murderous regime and will have to answer to that on the global stage”, Obama said.
The last delivery to reach those trapped in rebel-held parts of Aleppo – where the United Nations estimates some 300,000 residents remain – was in June, he said.
Lieutenant-General Sergei Chvarkov was cited by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying that the Nureddin al-Zenki rebel group on Tuesday launched weapons packed with an unnamed “poisonous agent” from an opposition-held neighbourhood to a government-controlled area of Aleppo. Footage showed gunmen dragging the corpses through the dirt.
Another 42 people, including 11 children, have been killed in strikes on eastern Aleppo, it said.
They had managed to keep control of at least four hilltops and one small village.
Meanwhile, the New York-based Physicians for Human Rights said in a statement on Wednesday that over the past week, Syrian government forces launched deadly air strikes against six hospitals in and around Aleppo.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s parliament, urged the U.N.to help in letting those people get out of Aleppo’s rebel-held areas through already identified crossing points.
The incident took place close to where Russian Federation said on Monday one of its military helicopters was shot down, killing the five people on board.
Residents said the barrel bomb attack had used chlorine gas, but the monitor could not confirm this. The United States and Russian Federation were in intensive discussions to “shore up” Syria’s collapsed nationwide truce and their military experts were still trying to agree a cooperation plan “that would unlock the entire solution”, Ramzy said.
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Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests – which erupted as part of the “Arab Spring” uprisings – with unexpected ferocity.
