Russia claims 46 people, including eight children treated in hospital after chlorine gas attack in Aleppo

Russia on Sunday accused insurgents in Syria of bombarding the city of Aleppo with shells filled with chlorine gas, poisoning 46 people, including eight children it said were being treated in hospital.

Euronews quotes a Russia’s Ministry of Defence statement saying that the chemical attack had been launched from an area in the Idlib de-escalation zone controlled by Nusra Front militants and that it planned to talk to Turkey about the incident since Ankara was a guarantor of how the armed opposition there upheld a ceasefire.

“According to our preliminary information, confirmed in particular by symptoms of poisoning among the victims, the shells used to bombard residential areas of Aleppo were filled with chlorine (gas)” Russian Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in the statement.

A leader in the National Liberation Front (NLF), an umbrella organisation of Turkey-backed rebels that includes the Free Syrian Army, has dismissed accusations they used poisonous gas to attack government-held Aleppo city.

The head of the NLF’s legislative office, Omar Huthayfa, told Al Jazeera the coalition does not possess poisonous gas and said the government is attempting to frame them.

“I believe that this is an act carried out by the government. We’ve seen it in Ghouta and in Khan Sheikhoun in the past and the international community remained silent,” Huthayfa told Al Jazeera.

“This is why the government has the audacity to continue accusing the opposition of carrying out such attacks when it knows that the opposition doesn’t possess even light weaponry for self-defence.”