UN investigates Aleppo ‘chlorine gas attack’

The UN is investigating evidence of a toxic gas attack on a rebel-held area of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Rebels said the attack – which reportedly left four people dead and many injured – was carried out by government forces using chlorine gas.

The UN special envoy for Syria said a chlorine attack, if confirmed, would amount to a “war crime”.

Footage obtained by the BBC shows people with breathing difficulties receiving treatment at a hospital.

Men, women and children are shown being fitted with oxygen masks by medical staff.

The gas is thought to have been chlorine dropped in a barrel bomb, said the Syrian Civil Defence – volunteer emergency response workers who operate in opposition-held areas.

UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura confirmed the global body’s experts were investigating reports of a gas, believed to be chlorine, being dropped on Aleppo.

“There is a lot of evidence that it actually did take place,” he told reporters. “If it did take place, it is a war crime and as much it would require everyone… to address it immediately.”

Fighting has escalated in Aleppo in recent days, with rebels severing the government’s main route to the west of the city.

The offensive sought to break a siege by pro-government forces, who encircled the east in July with the support of Russian aircraft.

Aid crisis

Russia has announced a daily halt to hostilities between 10:00 (07:00 GMT) and 13:00 from Thursday, to allow in aid.

But UN Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Stephen O’Brien said while that would be taken seriously, a break of up to 48 hours was needed to get enough aid in on lorries.

“We have supplies ready to roll – food rations, hospital supplies, ambulances, fuel for generators, water supplies and more.

“We will continue to use all available routes and mechanisms to do this, including cross-line and cross-border operations from Turkey.”

A witness in Aleppo told the BBC there had not been any ceasefire on Thursday, contrary to what the Russians had said.

Earlier some of the last doctors in the rebel-held east of the city appealed to US President Barack Obama to come to the aid of the 250,000 civilians there.

They said that in the past month there had been 42 attacks on medical facilities in Syria, 15 of them on hospitals where they work.

On Monday, the UN said countless civilians had been killed or injured in Aleppo in recent weeks and hospitals and clinics had continued to be targeted.

Moreover, attacks on civilian infrastructure had left more than two million people without electricity or access to the public water network for several days, it added.

IS stronghold

Elsewhere, Russian planes attacked targets in the northern city of Raqqa, a stronghold of so-called Islamic State.

The city’s water supply had been cut off as a result, the group’s media arm, Amaq, said. The report was confirmed by an anti-IS group.

Russia ‘cuts IS capital’s water supply’

At least 30 people were killed and 70 wounded in the raids, a UK-based monitoring group said.

The long-range bombers destroyed a chemical weapons factory and a training camp for IS fighters, killing a “large number” of them, Russia’s defence ministry said.

In the south-west, the fighting involved government forces and their allies against rebels in the Hamdania and Ramouseh districts. Planes and helicopters took part.

Source: BBC