Assad on the offensive

HOW the tables have turned. In February last year Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched an offensive to take back Aleppo, once Syria’s most populous city but divided between the regime and rebel fighters since 2012. Not only were Bashar’s battalions pushed back from the city; the rebels then turned west and routed them from Idlib too. A year on, Mr Assad is attacking Aleppo again. This time he is succeeding.

Almost five years since the war started in Syria, the regime is making a comeback. Unlike previous ebbs and flows in the brutal conflict, this one looks as if it may prove decisive. In what has long since become a proxy war, Mr Assad’s allies are simply more dedicated to their cause than the backers of those fighting to oust him; and there is little sign that this will change.