US presidential hopeful Johnson makes Aleppo blunder

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for the White House, has made an embarrassing error concerning the Syrian conflict on US television.

During an interview on Wednesday's Morning Joe programme on MSNBC, Johnson, who is polling between 7%-10% nationally, was asked what he would do about Aleppo, the war-ravaged city in Syria.

Johnson replied with a bemused look and asked "and what is Aleppo?"

Interviewer Mike Barnicle and the other guests in the studio were perplexed by Johnson's confusion surrounding the issue.

Johnson continued thereafter with a generic and uncoordinated response to his possible solution to the conflict that has left almost half a million people dead.

"With regard to Syria I do think it's a mess. I think that the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia to diplomatically bring that at an end," Johnson said. "It's just a mess."