we cross to our regional correspondent, adam platz, who joins me from beirut. adam, walk us through what we know at this point. adam: just within the last few minutes, we have been in contact with a kurdish general on the front lines in the city of hasakeh. the islamic state group has been able to get into the southern parts of the city, around the fringe, so they are in the city proper. kurdish fighters control the north of the city still. government forces are fighting in the south, and he tells us according to his accounts, some of the government forces have been fleeing that -- fleeing their positions. what we knew before, as many as 160 people have been killed in the last five days including 71 regime soldiers, 78 isis fighters, and 43 islamic state group fighters and members of their families who were killed in bombings south of the city, south of the fighting itself. there are many thousands of people who fled the city displacing from the south to the north, others leaving the entire area and moving across into turkey where syrian officials speak anonymou

we cross to our regional correspondent, adam platz, who joins me from beirut.