According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a flurry airstrikes from Russian warplanes hit areas around camps for displaced civilians in Atareb, near the northern city of Aleppo.
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On Tuesday, the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) accused the Syrian regime of dropping containers of chlorine by a helicopter on a Syrian town close to where a Russian helicopter was shot down in rebel-held Idlib province a day earlier.
US officials say the government offer for civilians to flee is an attempt to depopulate rebel-controlled areas, making it easier for the regime to seize them and to further demonstrate the dramatic shift of fortunes in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s favour since Moscow launched its military intervention on his behalf previous year.
Jaish al-Fateh, an alliance of several rebel groups, which was previously known as the Nusra Front before breaking ties with al-Qaida, has unleashed five offensives in the southern countryside of Aleppo over the past two weeks, in a bid to break a recently-imposed siege by the Syrian army.
The observatory said that Russian aircraft were behind the strikes at dawn.
Intensive discussions with the Russian Federation and Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria to ensure that the civilian population in Aleppo is protected and that standards of worldwide humanitarian law are respected in any operation of humanitarian assistance are underway, Ramzy said.
Rebels detonated a bomb in a tunnel underneath a government position in the Ramouseh area, the observatory said.
At least seven people were killed and 20 others suffered suffocation and breathing difficulties from chemical gas attack in Aleppo, state news agency SANA said on Wednesday, citing a Russian observation centre.
Overnight, at least 10 civilians, including four children, were killed in rebel shelling of government-controlled districts on Aleppo’s southwestern edges, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Jan Egeland, an adviser to U.N.’s special envoy to Syria, says only 40 percent of planned humanitarian relief was delivered in June and July.
But CNN sources on the ground and worldwide observers say the corridors do not appear to be in wide use, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested last week that the corridor approach could potentially be a “ruse”. It said the agency continues to examine any credible reports it receives, including pertinent information that might be shared by state parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Smoke was seen billowing over the city in the footage, and gunshots were heard.
Syria’s state-run media said the attack had been foiled and many insurgents had been killed.
Many hospitals have been hit or damaged during the five-year conflict.
At the same time, the United Nations Children’s Fund said it is “extremely concerned” for the safety and well being of children caught in the ongoing war.
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The regime denied responsibility for the attack.
