Anne Barnard
The New York Times's Beirut bureau chief
Anne Barnard is The New York Times's Beirut bureau chief.
8 Oct 2016
In fight for Aleppo, tangled alliances add to chaos
The Syrian civil war, and the intense new ground battle in the divided city of Aleppo, is often seen as a contest between a chaotic array of rebel groups and the Russian-backed government of President Bashar Assad. But the reality is that Mr Assad's side is increasingly as fragmented as its opponents, a panoply of forces aligned partly along sectarian lines but with often-competing interests.