on the sunny beaches of latakia, the war might as well be on another planet.s is vacation land one of the last areas of the countries under full government control. but less than 50 miles away extremist fighters took a city in may and the armed opposition has crept into the countryside. we are going to an area just outside a town called salma. it is the limit of the area that the syrian military controls. across the country, that area has been shrinking over the past year. as the syrian army lost ground to isis and other extremist groups. at the checkpoint we weren't allowed to film the military's fighting position just routine inspections for rebel semp thighs sympathizer. the rebel fighters they say are on three sides and this man who lives next door confirmed that. how close are they now, do you think? [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: one kilometer? less than a mile? just half an hour away, latakia is bustling but everyone here knows their bubble of stability is both fragile and under threat. the u.s. administration supports an eventual politic

elsewhere rebels are trying to make inroads into the government-held city of latakia.s one of a few cities under full government control, and has seen months of fighting. >> photos of alleged torture and executions by the government has been shown to the u.s. congress. pictures were taken and smuggled out. they were put on display as critics of the obama administration accuse it of abandoning attempts to end bashar al-assad's role. tom ackerman reports. >> reporter: these are images of horror leaving little to the imagination, a body scarred by am pew takes -- amputation gouging and starving. they were taken in two damascus military hospitals on the order of the syrian government intelligence services. the unidentified man who claimed to take the photograph is code name assessar, a former -- seizar a former military photographer. he defected with more than 50,000 images of torture. syria dismissed them as forgeries, the fbi and others are convinced they are authentic. a sample on display by the holocaust museum was put on exhibit in the capitol building. a former detai

taking control of the province of idlib in the north and pushed bashar al-assad's strong hold at latakia on the coast. areas close to damascus are battle grounds. >> damascus is the center power. he's wanting to get hold of some areas, and trying to get - to protect the main highway. that is very important to him. overall, he's losing ground, lost sovereignty in the north and the south. he is in trouble, really and possibly no-fly zone buffer zone might bring him to the negotiation table in the future. >> more fighting is reported in different parts of syria. government helicopters dropped barrel bombs in the north-west of syria killing a number of people. syria turned into a proxy war, which could prolong the war. the u.n. says more than 230,000 people have been killed and millions more are displaced much >>> a syrian activist and member of the opposition syrian national coalition questions the president's motives. >> bashar al-assad's regime is suffering a lack of people, lack of man power, and they are losing big lines of syria. but i would like to insist that he said that he would gi

they say it is the gate way to latakia. a sad anassessment roll homeland. >> they are now in clashes with the regime forces in the vicinity. with the support of allah, we will be in their strongholds on the syrian coast. >> if they do make it that far, it's unclear who they'll find. after four years of war millions of syrians fled the fighting. what is hard to say is how many if any, government soldiers remain in the region and to what extent they are fighting back. fighters control a large part of northern syria, it's called the battle of victory. in this drawn out conflict victory is hard to define >>> all right, let's go back to the story of muhammadu buhari visiting cameroon. obviously they'll talk about the ongoing fight against boko haram. now, in march last year cameroon deployed around 1,000 soldiers to its border with nigeria after numerous attacks on its soil that were blamed on boko haram. two months later the armed group hit back attacking villages kidnapping people in the northern part of cameroon. february thi

from the country from syrian government forces.forces elizabeth palmer is in the coastal city of latakia, one of the last areas under the rashad regime's control. >> rep elizabeth, good morning. ir >> reporter: good morning. the air bombardment against isisgainst i in the west in syria is just one front in a larger war that's iaptearing the country apart, ing th leaving small and, in many places shrinking pongts of ts of stability. we visited one of them on the mediterranean sea. on this sunny beach, the war might as well be on another planet. this is vacationland.r one of the last areas of the o country under full government contro control. but less than 50 miles away extremist fighters took the city in may. and the armed opposition has ntryside crept into the countryside. we're going to an area just outside a town called selma. it is the limit of the area that the syrian military controls.he across the country that area's ha been shrinking over the past year. as the syrian army lost ground to isis and other extremist groups. at the checkpoint we weren't allowed to film the military's l