MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Syrian Islamist militant group Jaish al-Islam has admitted to using "forbidden" weapons in clashes with the People's Protection Units (YPG) in Aleppo's Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsood district, according to a statement, allegedly attributed to the group.
On Thursday, the Sheikh Maqsood district was reportedly shelled with chemical agent-containing weapons. Videos uploaded by activists showed a yellow cloud rising above buildings, while the Kurdish Red Crescent later stated that the hospitalized victims of the attack displayed signs of Chlorine poisoning.
"Jaish al-Islam's fighters confronted the attempts of the PYD's Kurdish militia to control the Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood… During these confrontations, one of the field commanders in Jaish al-Islam in Aleppo used weapons that he was not authorized to use in this kind of confrontation, which is considered a violation of the internal regulations of Jaish al-Islam," the groups' spokesman Islam Alloush said in the statement, published on the Conflict News website, on Thursday.
Chemical weapons had previously been deployed by rebels groups in Aleppo. In early March, the YPG stated that Syrian opposition fighters belonging to the Ahrar ash-Sham Islamist group shelled the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood using white (or yellow) phosphorus munitions.
