Reports of a Chlorine Attack in Aleppo
Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been conducting airstrikes to bolster his forces for almost a year. United Nations experts said Tuesday more investigations are ongoing into alleged chemical attacks earlier this year, including in Aleppo. Several cases of chlorine gas bomb attacks also have been reported there.
According to rescue workers, barrel bombs containing the chemical were dropped on the rebel-held As-Sukkari area of the city.
The city has always been split between government and rebel control but the Syrian military, backed by the Russian air force, is seeking to recapture the entire city in what be its most vital strategic victory in the conflict if achieved.
The arrival of reinforcements from Iraq, where Shi’ite militia are fighting their own war against the Islamic State group, shows how the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts have leapt borders, to become a broad sectarian war across the Middle East.
A monitoring group said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the Ramouseh district, in the south of the city, and severed a recently established rebel supply line. The Russian and the Syrian air forces are the only two operating over Aleppo.
Both rebels and the Kurdish-backed forces have said they intend to move on al- Bab.
Government forces put eastern Aleppo under siege on Sunday for a second time since July after advancing against rebels on the city’s outskirts. But there is little sign that any party is poised for victory or can restore stability, and foreign powers are becoming more involved.
The Islamic State group’s last major position in the province is Al-Bab, eyed by rival Kurdish and Arab fighters backed by the US-led coalition and Ankara respectively.
The latest estimates say that more than 470,000 people have been killed so far since the civil war began in 2011.
On Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed by phone potential cooperation to facilitate aid deliveries. Assad has allied with other Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.
“The U.S. has repeatedly condemned indiscriminate bombing of medical facilities by the Assad regime in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria”.
He added that people had told him they believed the government was targeting civilians to encourage them to flee, and that showing many civilian victims makes the area a good target for the next attack.
Sept, 08, 2016:Fighting between Syrian government army and insurgents in Syria’s central Hama province forced about 100,000 people to leave their homes between August 28 and September 5, the United Nations humanitarian agency said Wednesday. Under threat of USA retaliation for the sarin attacks, the government agreed to eliminate its previously secret chemical weapons program.
A team of global inspectors determined in late August that the Syrian government and Islamic State militants were responsible for chemical attacks carried out in 2014 and 2015. At the time, Assad fended off a threatened US bombing campaign only by agreeing to give up his arsenal of chemical weapons, later destroyed by the OPCW.
Cheap and easily available, chlorine is being used in Syria with disturbing regularity, according to physicians on the ground.
At least ten of those injured in the Syrian government attack, which could not be independently verified, are in a critical condition, including a pregnant woman.
The group said that it would preserve the human rights of all Syrians and the institutions of the state, including the military, and seek to avoid the mistakes made by the US occupation in Iraq.