Syria - Page 8

Government troops backed by Russian air strikes approach group's de facto capital for the first time since August 2014.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring group, said Tabqa would be a difficult military target because Islamic State has large stocks of weapons there.

A series of car and suicide bombings has hit two government strongholds on Syria's Mediterranean coast

The hospital has reportedly been badly damaged.

Airstrikes pummeled the al Quds Hospital in a rebel-held part of Aleppo last week. There are just six doctors left there.

Sixteen US service members were disciplined for their roles in the deadly strike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan last October. The Pentagon is set to release an investigation into the bombing on Friday.

Air strikes destroyed a hospital and killed dozens of people in rebel-held areas of Syria's Aleppo including children and doctors, while the United Nations called on Moscow and Washington to salvage a "barely alive" ceasefire.

Barack Obama wants to leave a legacy that shows some sign of a successful presidency. However he continues to experiment in Syria, which may hamper the Geneva peace talks, says Hans-Christof Von Sponeck, former UN Assistant Secretary-General.