The Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad is fighting a desperate battle against insurgents from different groups.
Damascus has suffered a series of setbacks against the so-called Islamic State, which in taking Palmyra and the surrounding area has seized government buildings, gas fields and border crossings with Iraq.
To the northwest, insurgents on Friday seized a hospital from Syrian government forces who had been besieged there since late April, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, another gain by rebels who have dealt a series of blows to President Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian state TV said soldiers holed up in the Jisr al-Shughour hospital in Idlib province had been freed, saying they had managed to “break the siege” in an operation coordinated with air strikes and artillery bombardment.
The al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, an insurgent group involved in the offensive, said government forces had fled. “The Mujahideen are pursuing them,” a Twitter feed affiliate
