Militants Use Chemical Weapons in Aleppo City

© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresenskiy

Militants have used shells with a toxic gas in Syria’s city of Aleppo, the Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported on August 2, citing a local source among pro-government militias.

According to the report, 5 civilians were killed by the attack.

“Terrorists have used a weapon causing asphyxia and damaging the nervous system. Five people have died from suffocation,” RIA Novosti quoted an anonymous militia member.

Various militant groups, including Jabhat Fatah al Sham (previously known as the al-Nusra Front), Ahrar al-Sham and al-Jabhat al-Islāmiyyah, united efforts in an attempt to break the siege that the Syrian army had set on the militant-controlled areas of Aleppo city.

The attack in Aleppo followed allegations that the Syrian government’s helicopter dropped barrels suspected to contain chlorine gas on the town of Saraqeb in Indlib province last night. The allegations were issued by the pro-Western NGO known as ‘White Helmets.’