Earlier on Tuesday, the Syrian Civil Defence said helicopters had dropped containers of chlorine gas overnight on the rebel-controlled Saraqeb town in the Idlib province.
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“Just before midnight, helicopters dropped five explosive barrels containing cylinders of chlorine and shards of metal on neighbourhoods in Saraqeb”, Raed al Saleh, head of the Syrian Civil Defence Group, told Al Jazeera.
However, the rebels still need to advance another 2.5 kilometers and take the artillery base, one of the biggest in Syria, in order to reach fellow rebels on the Aleppo side.
Opposition fighters have been besieged since 17 July, when government forces surrounded rebel-held districts of Aleppo as well as cutting the Castello Road, the key rebel supply route into the city’s northern districts. At least one person was killed in al-Sukkari neighborhood, according to the activist-operated Local Coordination Committees. In both cases details and evidence remain scant, and many claims of illegal use of chemical weapons are never verified.
The Mi-8 helicopter was shot down in Idlib province while returning to the Russian air base on Syria’s coast after delivering humanitarian goods to the city of Aleppo, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Aid organisations believe about 250,00 civilians still live in the rebel-controlled areas of Aleppo.
Western powers including the USA have accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of using chemical weapons during his regime’s five-year civil war – a charge he has denied.
Videos uploaded online by Syrian opposition activists show the burning wreckage of a Russian helicopter in footage seemingly taken in the first few moments after the helicopter crashed.
It’s the deadliest single incident for Moscow since its air campaign began almost a year ago.
In the town of Saraqeb, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Aleppo, 24 people suffered breathing difficulties after a barrel bomb attack, the Observatory said.
So far, no person or body has claimed responsibility for this shooting, and Russian Federation has not pointed out who might be responsible for it.
Earlier, the ministry said the helicopter had been shot down but that the fate of the five – three crew members and two officers – was unknown.
Residents said the attack had used chlorine gas, but the monitor could not confirm this. The government and Russian Federation have accused rebels of using poison gas.
The assault began on Sunday and is meant to ease the encirclement of the opposition-held east of Aleppo city, where an estimated 250,000 residents have been under a regime siege since July 17.
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The city’s southern edges have been ravaged by fighting in recent days as the Fateh al-Sham Front and allied Islamist rebel groups seek to ease a government siege of the rebel-held east of the city.
