Two weeks ahead of an international peace conference on Syria, the country’s main Western-backed opposition group stands on the brink of collapse.

Syria's increasingly powerful Islamist rebel factions have rejected the country's new Western-backed opposition coalition and unilaterally declared an Islamic state in the key battleground of Aleppo.

Syria’s air force fired missiles and dropped barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attacked regime positions, flouting a UN-backed ceasefire that was supposed to quiet fighting over a holiday weekend but never took hold.

Syrian President Bashar al- Assad made his first appearance yesterday since a bomb killed some of his top lieutenants, looking calm and composed on state TV, even as his forces turned parts of Damascus into combat zones and rebels seized two of the country’s border crossings.

Syrian president Bashar Assad made his first appearance today since the bomb blast which killed some of his top lieutenants.