Fighting Intensifies in Battle of Aleppo

Syrian rebels, possibly backed by Turkish rebels, say they may be breaking through a weeks-long stale mate soon

Fighting over Syria's largest city intensified Friday with some of the fiercest battles in two months as rebel forces launched a new offensive to rout President Bashar Assad's forces from Aleppo, activists said.

The city of 3 million, once a bastion of support for Assad, has emerged as a key battleground in Syria's civil war. Its fall would give the opposition a major strategic victory with a stronghold in the north near the Turkish border. A rebel defeat, at the very least, would buy the regime more time.