Fighting in the deeply contested city of Aleppo has not let up despite worldwide efforts to establish a cease-fire. Two suspected chlorine attacks has taken place last month in Aleppo also.
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A year-long United Nations and OPCW inquiry into Syria, unanimously authorised by the 15-member Security Council, focused on nine gas attacks in seven areas and determined that Syrian government troops were responsible for two of them, in 2014 and 2015.
While opposition activists and health workers have accused the Assad regime of another chlorine attack in Aleppo back in August, the Syrian regime’s ally Russian Federation has accused rebels of using the “toxic” chemical agents at government-held areas, also in Aleppo.
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.
It said the al-Quds Hospital treated 71 other victims, including 37 children and 10 women. “Among the victims, 10 were critically injured, including a pregnant woman in her last trimester”.
An alleged chlorine gas attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo is said to have led to dozens of people including children being treated in hospital for suffocation. Alhaj added that he “had difficulty breathing and used a mask soaked in salt water to prevent irritation”. A video by the rescuers shows children crying and men coughing.
Al-Hamdo said that some people at the scene had reached such a level of despair – having concluded that publicizing such attacks brings no help from the outside world and may even bring more danger – that they tried to stop him from filming. It is a crowded neighbourhood’. Such symptoms are consistent with attacks involving chlorine, which can kill in high concentrations.
But the UN Security Council failed to agree whether to impose sanctions on the government, in line with a 2013 resolution authorising that such sanctions can be militarily enforced following the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
“We are disturbed by the recent allegations of the use of toxic chemicals in Aleppo”.
Since the Ghouta attack, he estimated that chemical weapons had been used more than 100 times in the conflict, and their effectiveness when deployed by the regime against ISIS had encouraged the terror group to use them in turn.
The Syrian government has denied ever using the chemical weapon, which can be fatal if inhaled in large amounts.
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He continued: “Yesterday evening, a civilian passed away there of suffocation”.
