Syria state media says rebels fire toxic gas in Aleppo

DAMASCUS

AFP Photoı

Syrian state media said Oct. 30 that rebels had fired shells containing toxic gas into government-held parts of Aleppo, leaving dozens of people including civilians in need of treatment, while the rebels made gains in the city.

State news agency SANA reported that 35 people were suffering from “suffocation” after shells carrying “toxic gases” hit the frontline district of Dahiyet al-Assad and regime-held Hamdaniyeh in Aleppo, AFP reported. 
It said people were suffering from shortness of breath, muscle spasms and numbness, but were receiving treatment.

The head of Aleppo University Hospital, Ibrahim Hadid, told state television that “36 people, including civilians and combatants, were wounded after inhaling toxic chlorine gas released by terrorists.” 

The allegation came on the third day of a rebel offensive to break a three-month siege of the opposition-held east of Aleppo.

Opposition fighters have captured the Dahiyet al-Assad district on Aleppo’s western entrance and seized buildings in al-Hamdaniya district, becoming 3 kilometers away from Aleppo’s city center, according to local sources cited by state-run Anadolu Agency.

Opposition forces are now stationed a few hundred meters away from the military academy, a stronghold of regime forces and allied militiamen in western Aleppo, sources said. 

Rebel groups have pledged to push from newly captured positions in the Dahiyet al-Assad district towards Hamdaniyeh, AFP reported. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group told AFP there were “cases of suffocation among regime forces in Hamdaniyeh and Dahiyet al-Assad.” 

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman could not specify the cause.