Armed rebels in Aleppo have launched a military operation aimed at breaking week-long regime siege of the opposition-controlled eastern part of the Syrian city.
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A spokesman for Syria Civil Defence told Reuters that 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas in Saraqeb.
The group, a network of volunteer search and rescue workers also known as the White Helmets that operates exclusively in rebel-held areas, posted a video on YouTube purportedly showing a number of men struggling to breathe and being given oxygen masks by rescue workers. They suspect it’s chlorine gas, but could not say for sure.
The Russian military said that 169 civilians and 69 militants fled through the corridors over the weekend, the state-run Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
Syrian opposition groups are planning to escalate an offensive against government forces in Aleppo, the strategic city divided between rebels and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, fighters have told Al Jazeera.
In April, opposition negotiator Mohamed Alush accused the Syrian regime of carrying out 43 chemical attacks and 13 chlorine attacks in Syria.
Russian Federation is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is supporting pro-government forces with air strikes.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the helicopter had come down along the administrative border between Idlib province in the northwest and neighbouring Aleppo.
Earlier Russian media reports said the helicopter was shot down over territory likely held by the rebel alliance Jaish al-Fath, which includes Fatah al-Sham and controls much of Idlib province.
The Russian helicopter downed Monday crashed about 15 kilometers from the site of the chemical attacks.
The Syrian conflict started as a largely unarmed uprising against Assad’s government in March 2011, but it quickly escalated into a full-on civil war that has left at least 280,000 people dead, according to the Observatory.
United Nations investigators confirmed Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad used chemical weapons against Syrian civilians in 2013.
The U.S. State Department said it was looking into the reported use of chemical weapons in Saraqeb. The crash killed all five Russian soldiers on board, constituting the largest loss of Russian life since Russia’s intervention in Syria in September 2014.
Mr Peskov also said Moscow would continue fighting global terrorism “on all fronts” despite threats from the Islamic State (IS) group. More than 250 people died, and 900 were wounded in four terrorist attacks in the past week, he said. All five people onboard the helicopter were killed.
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.
Russian Federation took many by surprise when it announced a drawdown from Syria in March 2016 amid concerns that Moscow is seeking to use Syria as a bargaining chip to resolve the Ukraine question, at the expense of Iran’s interests in Syria.
The UN estimates some 300,000 people are still trapped in the rebel section of Aleppo, with dwindling food and medical supplies.
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The Kremlin spokesman also refused to comment on US State Secretary John Kerry’s recent statements that Moscow and Damascus should refrain from offensive operations in Syria, as well as similar statements made by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
