Assad’s favor after a Russian blitzkrieg on Aleppo helped him regain control over the country’s second biggest city.

Opposition supporters are ecstatic but others are wary of their new Islamist rulers as Assad regime begins counteroffensive

Images shared on social media have illustrated the anger that Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad feel toward his ally Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader has been indispensable in propping up Assad's regime during the brutal Syrian civil war that started in 2011 but has been essentially frozen over the last four years.