Bilder: Människor i chock i ett raserat Aleppo

The Battle of Aleppo (Arabic: معركة حلب‎) is an ongoing military confrontation in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria, between the Free Syrian Army, Islamic Front, People's Defence Units and Sunni militants against the Syrian government, Hezbollah and Shiite militants. The battle began on 19 July 2012 as a part of the Syrian Civil War. The battle's scale and importance led combatants to name it the "mother of battles" or "Syria's Stalingrad". The battle has been marked by the Syrian army's indiscriminate use of barrel bombs dropped from helicopters, killing thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to evacuate. The London-based organization Syrian Observatory for Human Rights denounced the Free Syrian Army for its indiscriminate bombardment of government-held districts with gas cylinders filled with explosives, which resulted in hundreds of casualties. The battle has caused catastrophic destruction to the Old City of Aleppo, a UNESCO World Heritage site.