Syria attacks see truce come to end

REBEL-HELD AREAS TARGETED

SYRIAN warplanes have attacked rebel-held areas in northern Syria for the first time.

The attacks come as Syrian officials said more than 100 people were treated at hospitals following a suspected poison gas attack by rebels in the northern city of Aleppo.

The latest wave of shelling and airstrikes in northern Syria is the most serious violation of a truce reached by Russia and Turkey that brought relative calm to the country’s north for the past two months.

The rebels, who have denied carrying out any chemical attacks, accused the government of trying to undermine the ceasefire.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Thiqa News Agency, an activist collective, said government warplanes pounded rebel-held areas west and south of Aleppo city.

The airstrikes were the first since the truce went into effect on September 17. Syria’s Arab News Agency, SANA, said the alleged chemical attack late on Saturday was carried out by “terrorist groups positioned in Aleppo countryside” that fired shells containing toxic gases on three neighbourhoods in Syria’s largest city.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Russian chemical weapons specialists have been dispatched to Aleppo.

Russia is a close ally of President Bashar Assad.