TIME

With Aleppo’s fall, Syria’s civil war reaches a grim turning point

Progovernment forces in the courtyard of Aleppo’s Umayyad mosque on Dec. 13

WHEN SYRIANS POURED INTO THE streets in March 2011 to demand an end to President Bashar Assad’s repressive regime, in the country’s largest city, the first protests were small. It was not until 2012, after peaceful demonstrations had turned to armed resistance, that rebel fighters captured a section of Aleppo and the city took its place as the epicenter of the Syrian crisis.

Against overwhelming odds, the rebels managed to hold on to

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