Russia Denies Involvement in Syrian Gas Attacks

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) said the six hospitals were all located in the Aleppo governate and that patients had been killed in the bombings. But the talks collapsed in April over rising levels of violence, the government’s refusal to discuss the political future of president Bashar Al Assad and concern that regime forces were manoeuvring to besiege rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

About 50 rebels and dozens of regime troops have been killed since the assault kicked off on Sunday, according to the Observatory.

“The regime is launching counter-attacks to absorb the fierce rebel offensive”, said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

Rebel fighters and their jihadist allies launched an assault Sunday in a bid to ease a more than two-week government siege of opposition-held districts of the city.

After months of fighting between government forces and rebels in Aleppo, Syria, the situation has escalated in recent weeks.

Syrian state-run radio confirmed that government troops had started a “wide-scale counterattack” against rebels in south-west Aleppo.

Mohamed Khatoub, advocacy manager for the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), said: “Our health workers can tell the difference between damage inflicted by conventional bombs and vacuum after five years of the conflict”.

In the western, government-controlled areas, UNICEF says 25,000 people have been displaced and are taking shelter from intense fighting in mosques, university campuses and public gardens. Washington claims it is unable to remove the opposition groups.

The rebels have launched a counteroffensive, clashing with government forces on a number of fronts.

Within the last 24 hours, rebels shelled various quarters of the city as well as some areas in the Damascus Province in southwestern Syria and the Hama Province in the midwest of the country.

The medical facilities were hit between July 23 and 31, the New York-based group said.

Following the tragic events, Syrian rebels blamed the Russian government for the first attack, while US government officials said the attack may have been chlorine gas dropped by the Syrian government itself. The Syrian Civil Defense group said a follow-up attack on the camp wounded two of its volunteers, including one seriously.

Rebels mainly from Jaish al Fatah alliance pushed from the south of the city while fighters from Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades pounded regime-held areas of Syria’s most populous city and commercial hub before the war broke out in 2011.

“A Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter was shot down from the ground after delivering humanitarian aid to Aleppo”, the defence ministry said in a statement.