Syria army scores key victories ahead of Vienna talks

Syria's army scored its second important victory in two days with backing from Russian air power on Thursday, as the groundwork was being laid for crucial international talks this weekend in Vienna.

State television announced the capture of Al-Hader, a former opposition bastion near the key Aleppo-Damascus highway, just 48 hours after regime forces broke a siege by the Islamic State group of the Kweyris air base in the east of Aleppo province.

Bolstered by the launch of Russian air strikes in Syria in late September, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have launched a series of offensives to regain ground lost in the country's civil war.

A new push to resolve the conflict has meanwhile gathered pace, with diplomatic officials already arriving in Vienna ahead of talks bringing together some 20 countries and international bodies on Saturday.

And in a deadly reminder of the war's wider fallout, IS claimed responsiblity for twin suicide bombings that killed more than 40 people in a stronghold of Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

It was the deadliest attack yet on a Hezbollah bastion since the movement entered the conflict in Syria in early 2013 in support of Assad's regime.

A military source told AFP that regime troops and allied forces were in "full control" of Al-Hader, a town around  25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Syria's second city Aleppo.

The source said troops from Hezbollah as well as Iranian forces had participated in the operation.

Caption: Smoke billows following a reported airstrike by government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo

Photo: Yahoo!