A leading Iranian general is killed by Islamic State in Syria

“It’s back and forth”, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory.

Esmail Kosari, an Iranian politician, said Hamedani helped co-ordination between Syrian armed forces and the voluntary forces in their fight against Isil.

Thomas Pierret, an expert on Islam in Syria, said the US-led coalition bombing IS was “not very active” in Aleppo, and that Russia’s strikes there had hit mostly rebels, allowing IS to advance. It said the attack is believed to have been carried out by IS militants.

The terror group ISIS made gains near Syria’s largest city in the last 24 hours, indirectly aided by Russian airstrikes that drove other groups out.

The ministry said in a statement that air force jets used KAB-500 precision guided bombs to destroy a headquarters of the Liwa al-Haqq militant group in Syria’s Raqqa province. Liwa Suqour al-Jabal is one of a number of rebel groups that has received military support from the United States and Assad’s Gulf Arab enemies.

Russian air force say this is their biggest onslaught since.

Islamic State militants captured a string of villages near Aleppo on Friday in a lightning attack that brought them closer to the prized city in northern Syria, despite a major increase in Russian airstrikes that Moscow insists are targeting the extremists.

It’s the first public comment by a USA official on the cruise missile failures.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday that “80 to 90 percent” of Russian strikes in Syria were aimed at propping up Assad.

The Russian air and sea campaign, which Moscow said targeted “Islamic State”, has also struck other anti-Assad groups, a few of which are backed by Western and Gulf Arab nations and themselves have been fighting against “IS”.

He was known for leading the Fatimiyyun and Zeynebiyyun brigades, sent to Syria by Iran to support the Assad regime and Hezbollah.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed that senior military official was killed in the city of Aleppo while training with the Syrian Army. He was a veteran commander who had an important role in Iran’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

Senior Iranian officials have been in the country for several years.

The IRGC said in a statement that Hamedani had been playing an ‘important role… reinforcing the front of Islamic resistance against the terrorists’.