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

The surprise attack, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was the boldest rebel assault for years in the civil war that has been frozen.

A new assault on Syrian regime forces reached the major city, according to rebels and a war monitor. Government warplanes struck back at rebel territory.