LIVE BLOG: Latest from war in Syria

Islamic State fighters in Syria carried out suicide attacks that struck the cities of Homs and Tartous and a checkpoint near Damascus, all held by the government, and in Kurdish-held Hasakah province, its Amaq propaganda arm said on Monday.

The attacks killed dozens of Syrian troops, including several officers, as well as some Kurdish fighters, Islamic State said. 

Translation: Islamic State claims responsibility for the series of explosions that hit Syria today

At least 35 people were killed in the bombing in Tartus today, a so-called "double tap" attack where the second bomber targets those who have rushed to the scene of the first. No one has claimed the attack, nor another in Homs today. The Islamic State group did claim a blast hit Hasakeh targeting a Kurdish militia checkpoint.

Read Middle East Eye's latest report on the events of today here.

Tartus is a relatively safe area of Syria and a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government, and also the site of a Russia's only naval station in the Middle East region. Last week, the government was promoting Tartus as a holiday destination for foreign visitors.

Here's an updated map on the various fronts in the north of Syria, coming after the renewing of the government siege of Aleppo, and further advances by Turkish-backed forces in the border areas.

Syrian government have retaken control of rebel held areas in the Southern provinces of Aleppo city according to a monitor.

The Syrian observatory of Human Rights told AFP that the Syrian government had "retook full control of the Ramussa district after ferocious clashes with [Syrian] rebels".

Turkey will build a 30km underground power line from Gazientep to Jarabulus to provide electricity for residents in time for the Eid holiday. 

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has described British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson as being "completely disassociated from reality" after Britain hosted a high profile meeting with Syrian rebels and world leaders in London. 

The HNC, a coalition representing various factions from the Syrian opposition, called for the Syrian president to give up power as part of a political transition to end the five year long civil war. 

The meeting in London was also attended by foreign dignitaries from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Ashton Carter, the US defence secretary, on Thursday called on Russia to do the “right thing” in Syria and said that the two countries’ military could not cooperate while Moscow was fuelling the country’s civil war.

Speaking to BBC radio’s Today Programme, Carter said there was still a long way to go in Washington’s efforts to negotiate a “true cessation of hostilities”.

“We are going to put to the test the idea that Russia can begin to do the right thing in Syria,” he said.

What it said when it came into Syria was that it was going to fight terrorism and try to end the civil war through a political transition. That is not what it has done. It has fuelled the civil war and the violence there and has not helped us progress towards a political solution that would have [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad step aside and a new government including the moderate opposition take over.

Asked about the prospect of US-Russian military cooperation against the Islamic State group, Carter said that the countries had worked together in Bosnia and elsewhere in the 1990s.

But he added: “In the current circumstances it’s not possible for the United States to associate itself with, let alone cooperate in, a venture that is only fuelling violence and civil war and not heading towards ending it.”

Carter said a true cessation of hostilities, including an end to Syrian government air strikes and the use of barrel bombs and chlorine shells, would be the starting point for any future agreement between Washington and Moscow.

The Syrian government have reportedly bombed numerous parts of Aleppo on multiple occasions as it attempts to take control of rebel held areas of Aleppo. 

MEE contributor and Aleppo resident Zouhair al-Shimale told MEE that many of the barrel bombs hit a market area and cemetry in the Sukkari area where a suspected chlorine attack took place.

MEE contributor and Aleppo resident Zouhir al-Shimale sent us images of the bloody aftermath of a barrel bomb attack that took place this morning.

Dozens of people were killed in this latest barrel bomb attack to hit the rebel held area. 

General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force, the external operations wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, was reportedly photographed inspecting pro-government militias in Aleppo on Tuesday.

The photos were shared widely on Arab social media, with the militia being identified as the Iraqi al-Nujba movement, which on Wednesday said it had sent 1,000 extra fighters to the frontlines in Aleppo.

The battle for Aleppo has escalated in recent weeks, and the arrival of Soleimani in person could indicate that Bashar al-Assad’s patrons are not going to go down without a fight.

Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan told reporters on a long haul flight from the G20 summit that Turkey and US was ready to invade the Islamic State's group de-facto capital of Raqqa. The comments come as Turkish Forces continue to take control of areas previously occupied by the Islamic State group.

Al-Jazeera Arabic have reported that nearly forty people have been killed in the Aleppo province after the Syrian government launched a barrel bomb attack in the same area where a suspected chlorine attack took place. 

An Iraqi Shia militia fighting in Syria has sent more than 1,000 extra fighters to southern parts of Aleppo over the past two days to reinforce its positions, the group's spokesman Hashim al-Moussawi said on Wednesday.

The group, Harakat al-Nujaba, is fighting alongside the Syrian army and Lebanon's Hezbollah against rebel groups in south and east Aleppo and took part in a recent advance in a military complex in the city's southwest, he told Reuters.

Syria's military could not immediately be reached for comment.

Turkish backed Syrian rebels are calling for a "safe zone" to be setup in the Turkish-Syrian border area captured from the Islamic State group.

The rebels told Reuters that any safe-zone setup would have to be agreed by the United States, Turkey and Russia, a rebel commander said on Tuesday.