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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Video on social media appears to show the aftermath of a gas attack in Saraqeb 
  
 Barrels suspected to contain chlorine gas have been dropped on a town in Syria, a doctor and rescuers have said. 
  
 It is not clear who was responsible. 
  
 The attack took place in Saraqeb in Idlib province, near where a Russian military transport helicopter was shot down by rebels hours earlier. 
  
 About 30 people, mostly women and children, have been affected. Chlorine gas can cause victims to become short of breath and to foam blood from the mouth. 
  
 The government and some rebel groups have been accused of, and denied, using chemical agents. 
  
 A Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb on Monday, killing five crew. It is not clear who brought it down. 
  
 It was the biggest single loss of life suffered by Russian troops since they entered the conflict in Syria last year, on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. 
  
 Dr Abdel Aziz Bareeh, who works in Saraqeb, told the BBC that two barrels of chlorine gas were dropped on the town late on Monday. 
  
 "We know it's chlorine because we were hit by it in the past and we are familiar with its odour and symptoms. 
  
 "We have 28 confirmed cases, mostly women and children." 
  
 Separately, a spokesman for Syria Civil Defence told Reuters that 33 people had been affected in the attack. 
  
 The organisation of volunteer rescue workers said it suspected the barrels contained chlorine but was unable to confirm it. 
  
 Chlorine is a common industrial chemical, but its use in weapons is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention. 
  
 In 2013, the BBC found strong evidence suggesting residents of Saraqeb were subject to a chemical attack by government helicopters, something denied by the Syrian authorities. 
  
 Separately, clashes are continuing near Aleppo, where rebels have launched an offensive to break a government siege. ||||| Play Facebook 
  
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 Activists and emergency responders claimed Tuesday that dozens of people were injured after a helicopter dropped canisters of toxic gas on rebel-held territory in northern Syria. 
  
 The Syrian Civil Defence group said the attack — which has not been independently verified by NBC News — was carried out in the northern city of Saraqeb on Monday night, near to where a Russian helicopter was shot down earlier in the day. 
  
 A still image taken on Tuesday from a video said to be taken on Monday and posted on social media shows two men standing over a man on a bed, making him sit up as he breathes through a mask in what is said to be in Saraqeb, Syria. Handout / Reuters TV 
  
 A spokesman for the organization said in an emailed statement to NBC News that 33 people — including 18 women and 10 children — were taken to hospital showing "signs of severe respiratory distress." Three of the victims were in a "critical condition," he added. 
  
 The group, also known as the "White Helmets," released video showing what it said were several victims lying on what appeared to be rudimentary hospital beds, breathing through masks and hooked up to IV drips. 
  
 One person helping the purported victims was wearing a jacket bearing the Syrian Civil Defence logo. 
  
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 According to the group, a helicopter dropped two barrels, each containing five canisters full of chlorine as well as "iron balls of various sizes." 
  
 After taking the victims to hospitals, the volunteers removed what was left of the barrels and canisters, according to the organization, which describes itself as a neutral search-and-rescue operation. 
  
 The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported a helicopter attack on Saraqeb using "explosive barrels." It said that "activists accused regime forces of using explosive barrels which contained gasses." 
  
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 Fouad Basbous, a photographer in Saraqeb, told NBC News he saw clouds of what looked like smoke or gas rise over several areas of the city just before midnight on Monday. 
  
 Western powers including the U.S. have accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of using chemical weapons during his regime's five-year civil war — a charge he has denied. Rebel groups have also denied accusations by Assad and his Russian backers that they have used chemical weapons. 
  
 In 2013, the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state's declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January 2016, according to Reuters. 
  
 The wreckage of a Russian helicopter shot down in the north of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on Monday. AMMAR ABDULLAH / Reuters 
  
 Monday's alleged attack came just hours after a Russian helicopter was shot down between the besieged city of Aleppo and Russia's Hmeymim airbase. Moscow said it was returning from delivering humanitarian aid. No group has claimed responsibility for downing the helicopter. 
  
 Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Assad ally Vladimir Putin, told Russian state-run news agency TASS that he didn’t “have any information” when asked about the alleged attack. ||||| BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Syrian rescue service operating in rebel-held territory said on Tuesday a helicopter dropped containers of toxic gas overnight on a town close to where a Russian military helicopter had been shot down hours earlier. 
  
 The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) accused President Bashar al-Assad of being behind the attack. Assad has denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons. 
  
 A spokesman for the Syria Civil Defence said 33 people, mostly women and children, were affected by the gas, which they suspect was chlorine, in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province. 
  
 The group, which describes itself as a neutral band of search and rescue volunteers, posted a video on YouTube apparently showing a number of men struggling to breathe and being given oxygen masks by people in civil defense uniforms. 
  
 “Medium-sized barrels fell containing toxic gases. The Syrian Civil Defence was not able to determine the type of the gas,” said the spokesman. 
  
 The Syrian government and its Russian allies were not immediately available for comment. 
  
 Related Coverage U.S. says looking into reports of toxic gas dropped on Syrian town 
  
 Later, state news agency SANA said rebels had fired rockets armed with toxic gas on the government-held old quarter of Aleppo city, killing five people and causing eight breathing difficulties. It gave no further details. Rebels have denied previous accusations of using chemical weapons. 
  
 The SNC said of the reported use of poison gas in Saraqeb: “After shelling, besieging and killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes on them, the Assad regime has resorted once again, and in breach of UN resolutions 2118 and 2235, to using chemical substances and toxic gases. 
  
 “The daily reality confirms that all the international agreements and previous security council decisions, be they about chemical weapons or otherwise, are meaningless for the Assad regime.” 
  
 The Civil Defence spokesman said it was the second time Saraqeb had been hit by toxic gas. The group was aware of around nine suspected chlorine gas incidents across Idlib province since the conflict began, he said. 
  
 The U.S. State Department said it was looking into the reported use of chemical weapons in Saraqeb. 
  
 “I’m not in a position to confirm the veracity of (the reports),” said spokesman John Kirby. “Certainly, if it’s true, it would be extremely serious.” 
  
 A still image taken on August 2, 2016 from a video said to be taken on August 1, 2016 posted on social media shows a man sitting breathing through a mask in what is said to be in Saraqeb, Idlib province, Syria. Social Media/Handout via Reuters Tv 
  
 Monitors at the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks violence on all sides in the civil war, said barrel bombs fell on Saraqeb late on Monday, wounding a large number of citizens. 
  
 Russia’s defense ministry said a Russian helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb during the day on Monday, killing all five people on board, in the biggest officially acknowledged loss of life for Russian forces since they started operations in Syria. 
  
 DENIALS 
  
 The helicopter came down roughly mid-way between Aleppo and Russia’s main air base at Hmeimim in the western province of Latakia, near the Mediterranean coast. 
  
 Russian air power began supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad late last year, an intervention which tipped the balance of the war in Assad’s favor, eroding gains the rebels had made that year. 
  
 No group has claimed responsibility for downing the Mi-8 military transport helicopter. 
  
 Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the five-year-old civil war. Western powers say the government has been responsible for chlorine and other chemical attacks. The government and Russia have accused rebels of using poison gas. 
  
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 U.N. investigators established that sarin gas was used in Eastern Ghouta in 2013. The United States accused Damascus of that attack, which it estimates killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children. Damascus denied responsibility, and blamed rebels. 
  
 Later that year the United Nations and the Syrian government agreed to destroy the state’s declared stockpile of chemical weapons, a process completed in January 2016. 
  
 The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed in late 2015 that sulfur mustard, commonly known as mustard gas, had been used for the first time in the conflict, without saying which party in the many sided conflict it thought had used it. |||||Summary:

– More than 30 people were sickened Monday when a helicopter dropped toxic gas onto a Syrian town near where a Russian helicopter had been shot down hours earlier, NBC News reports. That information comes from Syrian Civil Defence, which claims 18 women and 10 children were showing "signs of severe respiratory distress" after the chemical attack in the rebel-held town of Saraqeb. The gas dropped in two barrels from a helicopter is believed to be chlorine, according to the BBC. "We know it's chlorine because we were hit by it in the past and we are familiar with its odor and symptoms," a local doctor says. The Syrian National Coalition claims President Bashar al-Assad is responsible for the attack, Reuters reports. But a state-run news agency later claimed the rebels were firing rockets armed with poisonous gas. Both the Syrian government and rebels have denied using chemical weapons. A Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb hours earlier Monday, killing five people on board. It's unclear who is responsible. Russia has sided with al-Assad against Syrian rebels.