Syrian conflict

The plan will begin with a "cessation of hostilities" from sunset on Monday. Syrian forces will end combat missions in specified opposition-held areas.

Russia and the US will then establish a joint centre to combat jihadist groups, including so-called Islamic State (IS).

A Syrian opposition coalition has cautiously welcomed the agreement.

"We hope this will be the beginning of the end of the civilians' ordeal," said Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the High Negotiations Committee.

"We welcome the deal if it is going to be enforced."

For more than 1,100 days, actually, they have opened their eyes every morning knowing that for one person they save, there will be many others who won't make it - who bleed to death, who will be burnt alive, who will suffocate, who give up.

And yet the Syrian Civil Defence still put on the white helmets that have become their namesake and rush to the rubble to find survivors and to bury the dead.

So far, they have saved 56,000 lives in Syria.

"He looks like a statue." That's what my 11-year-old daughter said when she saw the video of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh covered in grey dust and fresh blood, sitting on a bright orange chair in an ambulance.

He sits in complete silence, staring ahead with deadened eyes.

The statue moves. He touches his bloody forehead and studies his hand with confusion.

Orthopaedic surgeon Sam Attar, critical care specialist Zaher Sahloul and paediatrician John Kahler are all doctors from Chicago.

They went to Syria to volunteer and were some of the last people to get out of Aleppo before it was cut off from the world this week, after regime forces took control of the last road leading into the city on Sunday.

Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters took off from Hamedan on Tuesday, a statement said.

Targets were hit in Aleppo, Idlib and Deir al-Zour provinces, it added. Local groups said 27 civilians had died.

It is reportedly the first time Russia has struck targets inside Syria from a third country since it began a campaign to prop up Syria's president last year.

Iran is Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally and has provided significant military and financial support since an uprising against him erupted in 2011.

About 30 people were affected by the attack, which took place in Saraqeb in Idlib province. It is not clear who was responsible.

Both sides in Syria's civil war have been accused of, and denied, using chemical agents.

On Monday, a Russian military helicopter was shot down near Saraqeb.

Dr Abdel Aziz Bareeh, who works in Saraqeb, told the BBC that two barrels of chlorine gas were dropped on the town late on Monday.