Assad blamed for toxic gas attack on Syrian town where Russian helicopter was downed

Published August 4th, 2016 - 04:00 GMT
A picture taken on August 1, 2016 shows Syrian rebels gathering around the wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter after it was shot down in Idlib province. (AFP/Mohamed al-Bakour)
A picture taken on August 1, 2016 shows Syrian rebels gathering around the wreckage of a Russian Mi-8 military transport helicopter after it was shot down in Idlib province. (AFP/Mohamed al-Bakour)

A rescue service operating in rebel-held territory in Syria says containers of gas have been dropped from the skies onto the town of Saraqeb, in Idlib province.

Saraqeb is close to the place where a Russian military helicopter was shot down on Monday, killing all five people on board.

Meanwhile, US-backed Kurdish-led fighters say they now control nearly three quarters of a strategic city in northern Syria, that was a Daesh stronghold.

Fierce combat has raged for two months, with thousands of residents said to be trapped inside Manbij.

Its loss would be a huge blow to Daesh which has used the city as a transit point for foreign fighters and provisions from the Turkish border.

Manbij is in the northern province of Aleppo, which forms a theatre for several separate battles between multiple warring sides in Syria’s five-year-old conflict.

Editor's note: This article has been edited from the source material.

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