Syria conflict

A soldier was killed when Kurdish fighters fired on tanks. Kurdish media say three tanks were destroyed.

Turkish armour crossed the border earlier this week in an operation aimed at so-called Islamic State but also at Kurdish forces in the area.

Elsewhere in Syria activists say at least 15 people were killed in a barrel bomb attack in Aleppo.

Saturday saw clashes between Turkish tanks and Kurdish forces near Jarablus, a border town Turkey helped Syrian rebels recapture from IS on Wednesday.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesday's air strike, the ABC was told.

He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors said.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust and blood-caked face.

It was pretty hard not to.

The video of the dusty, confused child led news bulletins and was on the front pages of newspapers around the world, a powerful symbol of the suffering in Syria.

GRAPHIC WARNING: Images and details in this story may disturb some readers.

For nearly the past two months, I have been getting daily messages from doctors working inside rebel-held eastern Aleppo.

In so many ways, they have been totally cut off from the rest of the world.

Omran’s home had been hit by a military airstrike on his neighbourhood in Aleppo, Qaterji, which is currently under rebel control.

Images of the child sitting in the back of an ambulance – dazed, wounded and covered in dust – have put a face to the country’s seemingly-relentless civil war.

At just five years old, he’s as old as the conflict itself.

In a video filmed and circulated by the Aleppo Media Centre, Omran sits shocked and confused by what’s happened and all the cameras being pointed at him.

A new report by the charity, based on interviews with 65 "torture survivors", details systematic use of rape and beatings by prison guards.

Former detainees described so-called welcome parties - ritual beatings using metal bars and electric cables.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied such allegations.

Russian forces had announced a daily three-hour suspension of military action.

However UN officials said that was too short to take in enough to help the large numbers of people in need.

Aleppo has seen intense fighting recently between rebels and Russian-backed Syrian government forces.

There are also reports of a toxic gas attack on a rebel-held area. Four people died and many others were injured, medical staff say.

A letter signed by 29 physicians warns that if attacks on medical facilities continue at their present rate, there could be none left within a month.

It calls on Mr Obama to impose a no-fly zone over Aleppo to stop air strikes.

Russia has meanwhile said its forces will hold fire for three hours each day from Thursday to let aid into Aleppo.

All military action, air and artillery strikes would be halted between 10:00 (07:00 GMT) and 13:00 (10:00 GMT), a defence ministry official told a briefing in Moscow.

The United Nations says an immediate pause in fighting is needed to allow the water and electricity networks to be fixed.

Some two million people are without vital supplies, the UN says.

Fighting between government forces and rebels has intensified in recent weeks.

At least 250,000 people are believed to have been trapped in rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo since a key route into the area was closed by government forces in early July.

On Sunday, rebels cut off the government's key access route into western Aleppo.

Mr Alloush, from the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said the talks had not brought a political deal or eased the plight of Syrians in besieged areas.

The HNC suspended its involvement in the UN-brokered "proximity" negotiations with a Syrian government delegation in Geneva in April.

No date has been set for a resumption.

"The three rounds of talks were unsuccessful because of the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggressions against the Syrian people," Mr Alloush said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report said tens of thousands of people had been killed by the regime of Bashar al Assad, either as a direct result of torture or denial of food and medicine.

The monitoring group said it had arrived at the number by adding up death tolls provided by sources in several Syrian jails and security agencies.