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Hello, and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara.
Samy.
We begin today in Syria and the rapid and unexpected defrosting of an apparently frozen conflict that is having some pretty dramatic results today.
Russian warplanes have been in action over the city of Aleppo for the first time in eight years.
And tonight, questions are even being asked about the future of the Assad regime.
The reason for both of that is the rapid advance of Islamist rebels into Syria's second city and now beyond.
The rebels, led by a group called hts.
Previously, an Al Qaeda offshoot called the Nusra Front, took control of much of Aleppo over the last three days with little opposition.
And as the Syrian government's Russian allies bomb targets in that city from the sky today, the rebels have been advancing on the ground in the direction of the Syrian capital.
That is reportedly the sound of celebratory gunfire as some of them entered the city of Hama, 140km south of Aleppo and just over 200km from the capital, Damascus.
We have tried without success to reach representatives of the Syrian government.
However, Yousef Hamoud, a spokesman for one of the rebel groups, the Syrian national army, did respond to our text messages, and we voiced up his answers.
First of all, what is the status of the advance?
The progress is good.
It was slow in Al Baathar, but now there is a complete collapse of the regime's army and the Iranian militia working with it.
So would they go as far as Damascus?