A rebel commander said a fall in Iran-backed manpower created an opening this week's assault. Iran's ally Hezbollah has suffered big losses to Israel.

As the sun set on Syria’s north-western city of Aleppo, a group of rebel fighters reached Al-Basel square. Towering over the junction is a statue of president Bashar al-Assad’s brother, Bassel, a Syrian army general who was widely anticipated to take over the leadership of the country from his father,

After four years of relative calm, a new phase of the civil war has begun in Syria. Opposition forces launched a major offensive on the second-largest city, Aleppo, catching the regime of Bashar al-Assad unprepared.