WASHINGTON — (CNN) The Syrian government claimed a “terrorist group” carried out a gas attack that killed five people in the city of Aleppo Tuesday, the state-run news agency SANA reported, while an anti-regime group said suspected chlorine gas cylinders were dropped in Idlib province.
It is unclear if the attacks have any connection.
“Five civilians were killed and eight others suffered suffocation due to a terrorist attack with shells containing poisonous gas,” Aleppo’s health director Mohamad Hazouri told SANA.
In the city of Saraqeb in Idlib province, cylinders suspected of containing chlorine gas were dropped in residential areas, the anti-regime voluntary search-and-rescue group Idlib Civil Defence said in a statement posted to its Facebook page.
The statement by the group, also known as the White Helmets, said the gas cylinders “smelled like chlorine.”
The gas has caused 30 cases of breathing difficulties, the group said, posting a YouTube video purporting to show victims of the incident with oxygen masks on their faces.
The Syrian National Council, a coalition of opposition groups, blamed the Assad regime for the alleged attack and called on the United Nations to “shoulder its responsibilities towards stopping such attacks.”
“Developments on the ground show how the Assad regime continues to blatantly ignore international law and UN Security Council resolutions, especially those related to the use of chemical weapons,” the SNC said in a statement.
CNN has spoken with a doctor in Saraqeb who said he treated some of those affected by the alleged attack.
He said the symptoms displayed were consistent with “symptoms of someone who has suffered from chlorine poisoning.”
A photographer who took photos of the injured for the White Helmets told CNN victims were suffering symptoms such as watering eyes, spasms, sweating, coughing and difficulty breathing.
The alleged attack occurred in the same province where a Russian helicopter was shot down on Monday, killing all five people on board.
It was the biggest single loss of life for Russia in Syria since its warplanes started carrying out airstrikes in September 2015.
No one has claimed responsibility for the downing of the Mi-8 aircraft.
Members of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham have a strong presence in Idlib province, as do other rebel groups fighting against the Syrian regime.
Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, formerly called al Nusra Front, recently severed its ties to al Qaeda.
The Kremlin said that the team aboard the helicopter was returning to base from Aleppo after making an aid delivery.
30 dead in rebel shelling
Aleppo is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, as the eastern rebel-held part of the city has come under siege by government forces.
The siege has essentially cut the area off from vital supplies, and has left the city without enough food, water, medical supplies and even fuel to keep their ambulances and hospital generators running.
At least 30 people, including children and women, were killed in government-controlled areas of Aleppo in recent shelling by rebel forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday.
The shells were fired from within rebel-held eastern Aleppo, targeting surrounding areas controlled by the Syrian regime, the UK-based monitoring group said.
Eastern Aleppo has been held by rebel groups since July 2012, but has recently been besieged by government forces.
The shelling comes after rebel groups launched an offensive Sunday in a push to try to break the siege that has choked that sector.
Fires to stop the bombs
Some neighborhoods in besieged eastern Aleppo have been under fire for more than 80 consecutive days, with regular bombardment by regime forces backed by Russian air power.
At least 6,000 people have been either killed or injured in that time, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
The group said rebel-held areas in the city’s east have faced sustained attack by regime artillery and airstrikes, while rebel and Islamic factions have shelled regime-controlled areas in western neighborhoods.
Images from eastern Aleppo show residents, including children, lighting fires to obscure the vision of pilots and to prevent them from dropping bombs on neighborhoods.
Hundreds of thousands trapped
The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian catastrophe as regime troops backed by Russian air power tighten their grip on the ruined city.
It estimates that between 200,000 and 300,000 people remain trapped in the besieged eastern part of Aleppo.
For those left in the area, life is grim.
The siege has essentially strangled eastern Aleppo, where the shelves of once-bustling food markets are empty and people are reusing medical supplies that should be disposable, such as syringes, CNN correspondent Ian Lee reports.
Escape routes
The Syrian and Russian governments say three humanitarian corridors have been opened to allow for the distribution of badly needed food and medical aid to civilians and to provide residents — along with rebels who choose to surrender — the opportunity to leave.
The Syrian regime and Russia say four more corridors will soon be made available.
The Russian military said 169 civilians and 69 militants fled through the corridors over the weekend, the state-run Russian news agency Sputnik reported.
But CNN sources on the ground say the corridors are barely being used as an escape route.
They say they believe people are too scared to flee, fearing what the regime might do to them once they get out.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested Friday that the corridor approach could potentially be a “ruse.”
Russia says it has prepared 14 tons of humanitarian cargo for those who leave the city, with 2.5 tons of food and other essentials already supplied.
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