A suspected chlorine gas attack on an area inside the besieged rebel-held territory of eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, has killed a child, activists and a monitor group said Monday.
The reported attack took place on Sunday, a day after the United Nations approved a humanitarian truce across Syria.
"Fourteen people had suffered breathing difficulties after a regime warplane struck the village al-Shofaniyeh in the eastern Ghouta region," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activists inside the area confirmed that a child has died and several people suffered breathing problems in what they described as a "chemical weapon attack, believed to be chlorine gas."
The opposition's interim government Health Ministry said in a statement that Sunday that several cases were admitted to the medical facilities of al-Shofaniyeh, with symptoms including "dyspnea, intensive irritation of the mucous membranes, irritation in the eyes and dizziness."
The statement added that in the targeted area, ambulances drivers, and victims all noticed the "clear and known smell of chlorine gas."
The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons, but the Observatory, a monitoring group that documents violence in Syria, said that cases of suffocation were reported in eastern Ghouta on Jan. 13 and 22.
On Sunday, residents, rescuers and the Observatory said warplanes and artillery hit some towns in the eastern Ghouta enclave.
The same day, Iranian General Mohammad Baqeri, whose government backs Bashar al-Assad, said Tehran and Damascus would respect the U.N. resolution.
But the Iranian military chief of staff also said the truce did not cover parts of the Damascus suburbs "held by the terrorists," the Tasnim news agency said.
Several previous cease-fires have unraveled quickly in the seven-year war in Syria, where Assad's military has gained the upper hand with the help of Iran and Russia, its key allies.
The U.N. Security Council resolution Saturday followed seven straight days of bombing by pro-regime forces on the besieged eastern suburbs, in one of the deadliest offensives of the war.
The Council voted unanimously to demand the truce to allow for aid access and medical evacuations. Yet while Moscow supported adopting the resolution, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia cast doubt on its feasibility.
The cease-fire resolution does not include militants from Daesh, al-Qaida and the Nusra Front.
Baqeri said Iran and Syria would adhere to it. But "parts of the suburbs of Damascus, which are held by the terrorists, are not covered by the cease-fire and cleanup [operations] will continue there," Tasnim quoted him as saying.