Assad ‘dropping chemical barrel bombs’

"Details have emerged of fresh attacks in which President Assad is suspected to have used chemical weapons against civilians only weeks after investigators confirmed that chlorine gas had been dropped from helicopters on to three Syrian villages last year.

On Saturday the civil defence team in Aleppo province reported that a barrel bomb containing a noxious gas had been dropped on Hayan, northwest of Aleppo. Three people were taken to hospital with severe injuries after inhaling the gas. Doctors treating them said their symptoms were consistent with the effects of a choking agent."