(CNN) -- Two children died Saturday in the suburbs of the Syrian capital -- not because of guns, bombs or other weapons, but because of malnutrition, activists and an opposition group said. 

The two boys suffered from marasmus, a type of acute malnutrition that can very quickly lead to death if not treated, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 

Ibrahim Khalil was 4; Ammar Arafa was even younger, but his exact age wasn't known, opposition activist Ahmed Al-Muadami said from the town, Moadamiyet al-Sham, in the Damascus suburbs. 

Moadamiyet al-Sham was one of the areas affected by the alleged chemical weapons attack August 21. It was the first town United Nations inspectors visited this week to gather evidence about the attack and speak to the wounded. 

Al-Muadami said the town has been under siege by Syrian troops since last November and that the situation there is "disastrous." 

"We ran out of food supplies and we cannot get anything into the town," he said. 

Doctors lacked the medicine and necessary nutrients to treat the children because of the siege, the Syrian Observatory said. 

"We haven't seen a piece of bread for six months now," said another resident, Abu Alnour. "We went through our food supplies, local produce and cattle." 

He said government checkpoints and snipers are blocking all the roads leading into the town and are not allowing anything in or out. The Syrian government typically calls rebels "armed terrorists." 

"The Red Crescent tried to send an aid shipment into the town in early July but the government forces denied them access, and that was the last aid shipment we heard about," Al-Muadami said. 
What is the name of one resident?
resident, Abu Alnour