One of the instances mentioned was in late August, when, according to monitoring groups in Syria, at least 16 people were killed when two barrel bombs were dropped from a helicopter during a funeral wake held for children who had died in Aleppo. Worldwide inspectors determined in August that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015.
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He said that the group could talk with members of President Bashar Assad’s government but that, at the end of the negotiation process, Assad should leave office – a proposal that fails to resolve an impasse with Russian Federation and the Assad government, which insist that he can stay in office during a political transition.
The world’s chemical weapons watchdog said Wednesday it was “disturbed” by the alleged use of toxic chemicals in Aleppo after dozens of people had to be treated for breathing problems in the Syrian battlefront city. “So it’s like bleach and that’s what people describe”, said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the Syrian American Medical Society. They are the “poor man’s chemical weapon”.
The government has denied the accusations, and couldn’t be reached for comments on the recent attack.
The U.N. humanitarian aid agency says fighting in Syria’s central Hama governorate has displaced some 100,000 people over eight days between late August and early September.
“The barrel bombs are basically liquid cylinders of chlorine that they throw out a helicopter”, de Bretton-Gordon said.
The fighting in Aleppo underscored the severity of the civil war, which has claimed an estimated 400,000 lives over the past five years of the conflict, according to the United Nations special envoy for Syria. One of the women was reported to be pregnant.
For parents, the horror and the threat it might be repeated the next night is enough to make them flee.
“We have not and will not use at any point this type of weapon”, said a source with the Syrian military, adding that such claims aim at diverting public attention from the setbacks militants have suffered.
Local opposition sources said Wednesday’s raids were carried out by Turkish forces. Human Rights Watch observed that a sequence of alleged chlorine attacks in Idlib province in March a year ago coincided with a major and ultimately successful rebel push to capture the capital of the province. CNN notes that chlorine was not part of that deal because it has other, legitimate uses as an industrial chemical.
According to the statement, the OPCW is continuing its work on establishing facts of chemical weapons use in Syria and will present a report for consideration to the states which are parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention. The White House subsequently said there was “irrefutable evidence” the regime had used weaponized chlorine.
Doctors in the northern Syria city have been treating numerous civilians with injuries from the gas attack on Tuesday.
Under the HNC’s plan, there will be six months of negotiations with the Assad government to try to agree to a temporary truce, and then a full ceasefire.
At least 10 civilians have been killed, the Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue workers’ organization that operates in rebel-held areas, said.
“When you’re exposed to chlorine, first of all you can smell it”.
“It’s a unsafe precedent because there’s no accountability for the use of chemical agents”.
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Rebel-held Aleppo has been pounded by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, backed by Russian air power.
