{"id":246359,"date":"2016-09-07T05:52:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T05:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=246359"},"modified":"2016-09-07T05:52:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T05:52:36","slug":"syria-conflict-government-helicopters-drop-chlorine-on-aleppo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=246359","title":{"rendered":"Syria conflict: Government helicopters &#8216;drop chlorine&#8217; on Aleppo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Syrian government forces have been accused of dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine from helicopters on a suburb of Aleppo, injuring 80 people.<\/p>\n<p>Volunteer emergency workers say people suffered breathing difficulties after an attack on the Sukari area.<\/p>\n<p>The reports could not be independently verified. A\u00a0UN-led investigation in August found the government had used chlorine on at least two occasions.<\/p>\n<p>The Syrian government has always denied using chemical weapons.<\/p>\n<p>It comes as Syrian opposition leaders prepare to meet in London on Wednesday to launch a new plan for a political transition to try to end the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition&#8217;s main political group, the High Negotiations Committee, will be hosted by UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and foreign ministers from the Friends of Syria group will attend.<\/p>\n<p>Ibrahem Alhaj, a Syrian Civil Defence rescue worker, said he had reached the scene of the Aleppo attack shortly after a helicopter dropped barrels containing what he said were four chlorine cylinders on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer emergency response team that operates in opposition-held areas, posted video on its Facebook page showing distressed children using oxygen masks to breathe.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"http:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/11A3\/production\/_91051540_035129019.jpg\" alt=\"Child uses oxygen mask after alleged chlorine gas attack in Aleppo. 6 Sept 2016\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>The group accused the government of another chlorine attack in August.<\/p>\n<p>Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, has accused rebels of firing shells containing &#8220;toxic gas&#8221; at government-held areas in Aleppo.<\/p>\n<p>Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention.<\/p>\n<p>The UN said on Tuesday that a brief period of relief early this year for civilians caught up in the war in Syria had been replaced by an even more brutal resumption in fighting.<\/p>\n<p>In its 12th report on Syria, it said the cessation of hostilities in February had allowed some towns to receive their first aid in years but it only lasted a few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The report says 600,000 Syrians now live under siege with a further 300,000 trapped in the city of Aleppo.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Syrian government forces were reported to have recaptured parts of Aleppo city which were lost to rebels last month, placing rebel-held districts in the city&#8217;s east once again under siege.<\/p>\n<p>Monitors said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the Ramouseh district south of the city and severed a recently established rebel supply line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syrian government forces have been accused of dropping barrel bombs containing chlorine from helicopters on a suburb of Aleppo, injuring 80 people. Volunteer emergency workers say people suffered breathing difficulties after an attack on the Sukari area. The reports could not be independently verified. A\u00a0UN-led investigation in August found the government had used chlorine on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":246362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=246359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/246362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=246359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=246359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=246359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}