Capturing Ramussa would simultaneously cut off government forces and give rebels a new access route to their besieged neighbourhoods in east Aleppo.
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Emergency aid workers in the area said on Tuesday that helicopters dropped barrels that may have been full of chlorine gas over the town of Saraqeb, in western Syria, the same area where a Russian helicopter was downed the previous day.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition accused President Bashar Assad of being behind the attack.
Russian Federation continues to tip the scales in its ally Bashar Assad’s favor as Vladimir Putin’s air force has led the way in repelling a rebel offensive in Aleppo, Syria.
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.
At a news conference in Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said the US would press on with a multi-month effort to prod Syrian President Bashar Assad and moderate opposition groups into a lasting truce and talks on a unity government.
“Because the location of this alleged chemical attack is very close to the site of the helicopter downing the Kremlin is very key to void the assumption that has been made in some circles that it is involved in some way in any kind of retaliatory or punitive response to that incident”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a shelling by barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas hit the town of Saraqeb in the northwestern province of Idlib on Monday evening, causing suffocation and breathing difficulties to 20 people.
On Monday, a Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb.
The latest deaths came Monday, when Moscow announced five people on board a military helicopter were killed when it was shot down over Idlib province.
RUSSIAN military spokesman Lt Gen Sergei Rudskoi said last night that the Syrian army, backed by Russian air cover, had repelled a massive rebel attack meant to break the siege of Aleppo.
“A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down from the ground after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo”, the defence ministry said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
He said de Mistura’s deputy, Ramzy Ramzy, was in Damascus Monday and invited Syrian authorities to come to talks by the end of the month.
The encirclement of eastern Aleppo has raised fears of starvation for remaining residents, who have reported food shortages and spiralling prices since the government siege began on July 17. The army confirmed on state media that rebels had begun an offensive but said its fighters had pushed them back from an air force artillery base.
Moscow said last week it was opening humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave the rebel-held areas, and for fighters to give up their arms.
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A spokesman for the Syria Civil Defence said 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas, which they suspect was chlorine, in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province.
