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Mother and children among dead in suspected chlorine gas attack in Aleppo

Russian Federation said the raids destroyed a “chemical weapons factory” as well as a weapons storage facility and IS training camp.

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On Monday, the United Nations said countless civilians had been killed or injured over the past few weeks in the city, and that the targeting of hospitals and clinics had continued unabated.

About Russia’s proposal for daily three-hour ceasefires in Aleppo, de Mistura said such short-scale truces were not enough.

“To meet that capacity of need, you need two lanes and you need to have about 48 hours to get sufficient trucks in”, Stephen O’Brien, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters. It has demanded at least 48 hours per week. “But if it did take place, it is a war crime”.

“It’s really not for me to assess who did it and whether it actually took place, although there’s a lot of evidence that it actually did take place”.

The letter, written by 15 of the last doctors serving in eastern Aleppo, describes a dire humanitarian situation for people still living there. The Syrian government and Russian Federation have previously denied targeting medical facilities.

“When the attack began. rockets and shells were fired towards Hamdaniya”, said Abu George, a resident who fled that neighbourhood, close to the military complex in the southwest of the city.

Russian Federation also carried out raids further east on the Islamic State group bastion of Raqa that a monitor said killed 24 civilians and wounding 70 more.

The local activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently says the strikes also cut the city’s water supply.

The offer came one day after crucial talks between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “We said we have a common enemy which we can struggle against together”. Daesh is an Arabic language acronym for the Islamic State group.

Russian Federation says it will temporarily cease military operations in the Syrian city of Aleppo for three hours starting Thursday to allow humanitarian aid to get in, but media reports say fighting continues.

The experts have warned that the frequent use of chemical weapons in Syria risks normalising war crimes, The Guardian reported on Thursday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to give official statements. Four people died and many others were injured, medical staff say.

The Observatory made no mention of chlorine gas. Planes and helicopters took part.

Syrian state television reported on Thursday that the army had advanced on Wednesday night under cover of air strikes to positions near the areas that rebels captured last week.

Syrian rebels and government forces have clashed in southern Aleppo, including during the period of a promised Russian lull to allow humanitarian convoys in, according to media reports.

People gather to buy fresh produce that was brought into rebel held areas of Aleppo by private traders from a newly opened corridor that linked besieged, opposition-held eastern Aleppo with western Syria that was captured recently by rebels.

A Syrian government airstrike on an opposition-held district in the embattled city of Aleppo killed at least two people in what was alleged to have been a chlorine gas attack, a Syrian rescue worker and opposition activists said Thursday.

Two barrel bombs allegedly containing chlorine gas were dropped on 1 August in two residential neighbourhoods in the city of Saraqeb in Idleb province, reportedly injuring at least 28 civilians.

The report, which was posted online Thursday, could not be independently verified.

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“So far we have reports that there is shelling and fighting”, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Russia announces daily ceasefires in Syria's Aleppo to let in aid