The Battle of Aleppo (19 July 2012-13 December 2016) was the most infamous battle of the Syrian Civil War, occurring when the Syrian Arab Army besieged Syrian Opposition forces in the city of Aleppo. The siege started at the beginning of the conflict, and the siege would become the face of the civil war, with the government using barrel bombs to target rebel-held areas (at times causing civilian casualties) and the rebels executing civilians and carrying out atrocities. The rebels would form several operations rooms, including the Army of Conquest and Fatah Halab, coordinating operations between the "moderate" Free Syrian Army rebels, the Islamist Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam rebels, and the jihadist al-Nusra Front rebels against the government. Later, Iran and Russia would send forces to assist the government, and various Shia or pro-government militias such as Liwa al-Quds, the Popular Mobilization Forces, Liwa Fatemiyoun, and the Syrian Resistance assisted the government. Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps troops and Russian Air Force planes played a key role in assisting the government in fighting the rebels, and the rebels were gradually forced to retreat into the Old City after a series of offensives in 2015 and 2016. In December 2016, the government encircled the Old City of Aleppo and bombed the rebels in the center, eventually capturing the city. The rebels agreed to a ceasefire that would allow for them to relocate to the countryside outside of the city, and the Syrian government reentered the devastated city; by 22 December, the government and the Kurds had taken over the whole city, and the rebels were bussed out of the city. Aleppo was one of the worst humanitarian crises in the 21st century, seeing women and children be killed by indiscriminate bombing from both sides. The fall of Aleppo allowed for humanitarian aid to arrive, which had previously only been allowed to enter the city during fragile and brief ceasefires.
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