Heavy fighting and airstrikes have led to IS fighters abandoning key towns in the Syrian governorate of Hasakah, but in Assyrian areas the group have advanced and kidnapped scores of civilians.
Analysis: Fighters from Syrian opposition forces in the Aleppo region will be the first to be trained by the US in Turkey for the fight against the Islamic State group.
Northern Aleppo has again become the scene of bloody fighting as rebel groups pound regime-held areas with mortars and improvised rockets, as government forces launch a new offensive.
Analysis: Rebel attacks on central areas of the Syrian capital, and regime responses in rebel-held suburbs, suggests a new escalation in the war, with the city as a new front.
Group moves equipment and food stores to Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, reports say, anticipating attacks from northern Aleppo following capitulation in Kobane.
Al-Nusra Front militants have not only been advancing on regime areas, but also on rebel-held territory. Moderate opposition forces are now joining a powerful coalition to counter this threat.
Under siege by opposition forces for over two years, pro-regime Nubol and al-Zahraa have been successful in fighting off another attempt by al-Nusra Front to capture the two towns.
Protests against al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise continue in Damascus and the Idlib countryside as a major clash between Nusra and the opposition seems imminent.
