Syrian rebels opened a new front in Aleppo as fighting spread on the third day of a major insurgent counterattack to break the government's siege of the opposition-held part of the city, and each side accused the other of using poison gas.
The rebels, including both Free Syrian Army factions and jihadis, are seeking to end the siege by seizing government-held areas of Aleppo, in an effort to link the city's rebel-held east with rebel-held rural areas to the west of the city.
Syrian state media said militants had fired shells containing chlorine gas at a residential area of the government-held western part of the city, al-Hamdaniya. Rebels denied that, and said government forces had fired poison gas on another front line.