Aleppo Central News Today

BEIRUT/IDLIB, Syria: It had been nearly a decade since Mahmoud Al-Khalaf laid eyes on his father, but he immediately recognized the bruised and battered face in the graphic photograph circulating online. It was one of four published samples from a cache of 800 images allegedly showing Syrians who died in the summer of 2013 in government detention in the northern Aleppo Central

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine renewed focus on Moscow’s earlier military intervention in Syria, which often became framed as a “testing ground” for the weapons and tactics it now employs against Ukrainian cities. But crucially, the Russian forces backing Assad’s embattled regime also understood the importance of rebuilding the broken Syrian security forces into more effective fighting units.