Accusations involving the use of chlorine and other chemical weapons are not unprecedented in Syria’s civil war, and both sides, including the Assad regime and opposition groups like the terrorist Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have denied using them while blaming the other for using it as a weapon of war.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported a barrel bomb attack in the area, but could not confirm whether chlorine was involved.
“Units of our armed forces in co-operation with allied forces control the gas works, the tannery, the slaughterhouse, the post office and the military checkpoint area of Ramousah in Aleppo”, a Syrian military source had said earlier.
A statement from the al-Quds hospital, which received 46 of the patients, said all were suffering from breathing difficulties and “a strong smell of chlorine emanated from their clothes”. A 13-year-old girl and a 29-year-old man died from further complications yesterday.
There were at least two reports of possible chlorine attacks last month in Aleppo, according to the AP, which adds that Syria’s government has accused the opposition of using chlorine gas.
“Al-Sukkari’s attack resulted in the lives of mostly civilians”, Al Jazeera’s Ahelbarra said.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the capture of Ramussa on the city’s southern outskirts followed the arrival of reinforcements of Iraqi and Iranian pro-government militiamen this week. The United States, which is trying to negotiate a ceasefire with Russian Federation, has backed Kurdish forces advancing against Islamic State.
At least 37 children and ten women were among those hospitalized, the Aleppo Free Doctors Committee said.
Pro-Syrian government forces overran a strategically important district on the southern outskirts of Aleppo on Thursday, rolling back almost every gain from a major month-long rebel offensive there, a monitor group reports.
The organization says the rescuers were trying to help victims from earlier strikes on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib and the Salehine neighborhood in the city of Aleppo.
In a “flash update”, OCHA says figures from a camp coordination group show almost half of the displaced arrived in the neighboring Idlib governorate.
A team of global inspectors determined in late August that the Syrian government and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. In rural areas of Hama province dozens of schools were also converted into shelters.
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Syria’s main opposition bloc has put forward a plan for a political transition and a ceasefire to end the civil war in the country. The HNC called for United Nations -supervised elections to be held 18 months thereafter.
