World Politics Review
AZAAZ, Syria -- As the fighting intensifies between government forces and the opposition Free Syrian Army for control of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, the rebels are consolidating their hold over large tracts of territory elsewhere in northern Syria.
Azaaz, an important city close to the Turkish border, fell to the FSA on July 19, after a month of heavy fighting. In that battle, government forces had been pushed back to a single compound, where they held out for weeks while the Syrian army tried to relieve them with tank incursions, helicopter gunship attacks and artillery shelling.
