Germany Urges UN-Supervised Access to Syrian City of Aleppo

As the fighting has included numerous attacks on medical facilities, a group of Syrian doctors sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama describing the devastation and pleading for action to stop attacks against civilians.

Cavusoglu also announced that his country will resume its airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, months after they were suspended amid a major row with Moscow. “My colleges brought cereals, drinking water, sugar and rice”, the driver of one of the cargo trucks, Abdel Majid Saeed, told reporters.

Swedish Prosecution Authority spokeswoman Karin Rosander said Sweden handed over a formal request to interview Assange in January, and a reminder in June, and received Ecuador’s reply on Tuesday. “We do not need tears or sympathy or even prayers: we desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks, and worldwide action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again”, the doctors write.

The Russian airstrikes around Raqqa on August 11 killed at least 20 civilians, Syrian activists said, and came amid Turkish calls for greater cooperation with Moscow against the extremist group.

A Syrian rescue worker says three civilians, a mother and two children, died in a suspected chlorine gas attack on an opposition-held district in the city of Aleppo.

Both groups said the strikes were launched by Russian jets, though it was not clear how they determined that. “He used to call her twice a day, during the day and at night”, the cousin said.

The official said Thursday that militants had fabricated the news and stressed that the Syrian army would never use chemical weapons.

The UN said Russian Federation was considering expanding three-hour pauses in fighting every morning to bring in desperately needed aid. The official, based in Damascus, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.

The accusations came hours after the Russian military, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces, promised a daily, three-hour cease-fire for Aleppo to allow humanitarian aid into besieged areas.

The UN is investigating reports that a barrel bomb dropped on rebel-held territory in Aleppo, Syria, on Wednesday, contained chlorine – an illegal chemical weapon.

However, there was no letup to the fighting in Aleppo, and residents of the opposition-held eastern part of the city reported near-constant fighter jet overflights on Thursday.

Mr Johnson said: “While the siege has been broken, the Assad regime and Russian Federation continue to bombard parts of the city and I am particularly concerned by reports of chlorine gas attacks which if proven, would be utterly abhorrent”.

Two men reported smelling gas and seeing barrel bombs before people began to suffer breathing and eye problems.

Washington also expressed concern over the reports, which it said would be in violation of a 2013 United Nations resolution to dismantle the Syrian government’s chemical weapons arsenal.

The news website El-Dorar Al-Shamia that is affiliated to the Syrian opposition said that the attack using poisonous gasses on the Zubdiya neighbourhood was not an isolated case and that Russian warplanes “targeted the neighbourhood of Al-Rashideen, the area around the town of Kefarnaha, west Aleppo and the Al-Ramusa area in south Aleppo with phosphorous bombs”.

Chlorine gas is a crude weapon, fatal in high concentrations while in lower doses, it can damage lungs or cause severe breathing difficulties and other symptoms such as vomiting and nausea.