Syria chemical attack: Russia to submit data to UN Security Council

Russia has said that it will submit data from its Defence Ministry on an air strike on chemical arms production facilities in Syria at a UN Security Council session.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "Russia will at least cite in a well-argued manner those data that were mentioned by our Defence Ministry during the work in the UN Security Council," reported the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.

"Russia and its armed forces are continuing an operation to support an anti-terror mission for the country's liberation, which the armed forces of Syria are carrying out," the presidential spokesman added.

The United Kingdom, the United States and France have proposed that the UN Security Council should pass a resolution on the incident with chemical weapons in Syria.

The UN Security Council will hold an open session on Wednesday over the incident that killed 58 and injured about 300 people, according to data of human rights organizations.

The Russian and Syrian militaries denied their involvement in the chemical attack. However, Russia's Defence Ministry later said that on April 4, the Syrian air force had delivered an airstrike on the eastern outskirts of Khan Shaykhun to destroy militant facilities used to produce chemical munitions. These munitions were sent to Iraq and were previously used in Aleppo.

According to Anas al-Diab, an activist with the Aleppo Media Center, airstrikes hit the city of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province giving off a poisonous gas that led to this asphyxiation.

Three more strikes hit the same city center location but did not result in any gas, al-Diab added.

The death toll is said to be at least 67, according to al-Diab, while the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported it to be 58.

The High Negotiations Committee claimed the death toll could be as high as 100 with up to 400 injured.

Activist groups have blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime for the attack.

The Syrian Coalition, an umbrella opposition group, referred to the attack as a "crime similar to that in Eastern Ghouta in 2013 that the international community allowed to pass without accountability or punishment," in a Twitter post.