(CNN) -- Two children died Saturday in the suburbs of the Syrian capital -- not because of guns, bombs or other weapons, but because of malnutrition, activists and an opposition group said. The two boys suffered from marasmus, a type of acute malnutrition that can very quickly lead to death if not treated, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Ibrahim Khalil was 4; Ammar Arafa was even younger, but his exact age wasn't known, opposition activist Ahmed Al-Muadami said from the town, Moadamiyet al-Sham, in the Damascus suburbs. Moadamiyet al-Sham was one of the areas affected by the alleged chemical weapons attack August 21. It was the first town United Nations inspectors visited this week to gather evidence about the attack and speak to the wounded.
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Activists and an opposition group say they died of malnutrition
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They say their town has been cut off by Syrian forces since November
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12,000 people in the town need food and medicine, residents say
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The ICRC says those shortages plague a number of Syrian areas
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