AS GERMANY and the US blamed Russia and Iran for the plight of civilians in Syria’s second city Aleppo, Russian experts claimed yesterday that insurgents had used chemical weapons there.

Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said soil and shell fragment samples taken from the south-western suburbs, scenes of heavy fighting over the past month, had tested positive for chlorine and white phosphorus.

He added that bioassays from four Syrians exposed to the munitions had been taken for testing. Maj-Gen Konashenkov urged the UN’s Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to send a team to Aleppo to probe the use of banned weapons of mass destruction by al-Qaida-affiliated extremists and their Western-backed allies.

He said the OPCW had so far failed to co-operate with the Russian mission there.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert attacked Russia and Iran for their military support of Syria as troops continued the liberation of insurgent-held east Aleppo.

“It’s obviously the Russian and Iranian support for the ... Syrian regime which has caused a dramatic worsening of the situation for the population,” he claimed — despite evidence that militants massacred protesting civilians on Saturday.

At the Asia-Pacific summit in Peru on Sunday, US President Barack Obama said he was “not optimistic” about Syria’s future, warning that east Aleppo was likely to “fall.”

Meanwhile in Khan el-Sheh outside Damascus, al-Qaida occupiers reportedly agreed to surrender the town after four years and evacuate to their stronghold in Idlib province.