Aleppo Shows Syria is Broken in Too Many Places

Aleppo Shows Syria is Broken in Too Many Places by Kareem Shaheen – The National

In the end, Aleppo fell with a whimper. On Sunday and Monday, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad secured the whole perimeter of the city, seizing towns and villages that had withstood nearly a decade of assaults. The battle for Syria’s greatest city and its once industrial capital is officially over.

Aleppo came to symbolise the uprising’s fortunes. From near-victory in 2012 and 2013, when rebels swept in from a long-impoverished countryside and laid claim to half the city to the crushing siege, destitution and forced displacement in 2016, and the opposition defeat that heralded the beginning of the end for the armed insurrection against Mr Al Assad.

The Syrian dictator emerged to proclaim victory. While the war was not yet over, he said, the progress in the campaign would “rub their noses in the dirt.”…

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