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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Some areas in Aleppo have remained under fire for over 80 consecutive days and have left over 6,000 people either injured or dead, according to reports from Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
The defence ministry had earlier said there were five people on board. Rebels and activists have reported chlorine gas attacks in the town before, but the lack of chemical labs or independent testers makes it hard to verify these claims.
Moscow and Damascus should stop their military offensives in Syria, the US Secretary of State has said, only hours after a Russian helicopter was shot down in Aleppo.
In the same year, a chemical attack hit the then government-controlled town of Khan al-Asal in the countryside of Aleppo, in which several Syrian soldiers and civilians were either killed or suffered from suffocation.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups.
He said first responders smelled the gas at the site of the bomb attack, which he described as a busy shopping area near an ice cream shop.
The helicopter came down roughly mid-way between Aleppo and the Russian air force base at Khmeimim, near the Mediterranean coast.
None of Syria’s many rebel groups immediately claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks.
The statement by the group, also known as the White Helmets, said the gas cylinders “smelled like chlorine”.
It said nine people – among them three children – were killed on Monday and 11 people died in the attacks on Sunday.
The SAMS report, released in March, documented 161 chemical attacks in Syria, and linked the vast majority of them and the resulting civilian casualties to the Assad government.
Later that year the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January.
Syrian opposition fighters have launched a major assault on government-held southwestern parts of Aleppo to try to reopen supply lines after the army and its allies tightened their siege of opposition-held parts of the city last week.
Russian Federation has previously, though seldom, lost aircraft since it launched operations in support of the Syrian government at the end of September 2015.
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In recent weeks, government forces have encircled the east, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis for the estimated 250,000 people now under siege there.
