Pre-history and pre-classical era Aleppo has scarcely been touched by archaeologists, since the modern city occupies its ancient site. Aleppo appears in historical records as an important city much earlier than
Damascus. The first record of Aleppo comes from the third millennium BC, in the
Ebla tablets when Aleppo was referred to as
Ha-lam (𒄩𒇴). This has been identified as an early form of Ḥalab due to an interchange of /m/ and /b/ that has been attested in Sumerian texts, including with the cuneiform sign Lam. Some historians, such as
Wayne Horowitz, identify Aleppo with the capital of an independent kingdom closely related to
Ebla, known as
Armi, although this identification is contested. The main temple of the storm god
Hadad was located on the citadel hill in the center of the city, when the city was known as the city of
Hadad.
Naram-Sin of Akkad mentioned his destruction of
Ebla and
Armanum, in the 23rd century BC. However, the identification of Armani in the inscription of Naram-Sim as Armi in the Eblaite tablets is heavily debated, as there was no Akkadian annexation of Ebla or northern Syria.
Hittite period Yamḥad was devastated by the
Hittites under
Mursili I in the 16th century BC. However, it soon resumed its leading role in the Levant when the Hittite power in the region waned due to internal strife. Subsequently, Parshatatar conquered Aleppo and the city found itself on the frontline in the struggle between the Mitanni, the Hittites and
Egypt. Later the Hittite king
Suppiluliumas I permanently defeated Mitanni, and conquered Aleppo in the 14th century BC. Suppiluliumas installed his son
Telepinus as king and a dynasty of Suppiluliumas descendants ruled Aleppo until the
Late Bronze Age collapse. However, Talmi-Šarruma, grandson of Suppiluliumas I, who was the king of Aleppo, had fought on the Hittite side, along with king
Muwatalli II during the
Battle of Kadesh against the Egyptian army led by
Ramesses II. was originally a Hittite pagan temple during ancient times; in addition, a stone block with
Anatolian hieroglyphs can be found on the southern wall. Aleppo had
cultic importance to the Hittites as the center of worship of the
Storm-God. whose king renovated the temple of Hadad which was discovered in 2003. In 2003, a statue of a king named Taita bearing inscriptions in
Luwian was discovered during excavations conducted by German archeologist Kay Kohlmeyer in the
Citadel of Aleppo. The new readings of Anatolian hieroglyphic signs proposed by the Hittitologists Elisabeth Rieken and Ilya Yakubovich were conducive to the conclusion that the country ruled by Taita was called
Palistin. This country extended in the 11th-10th centuries BC from the
Amouq Valley in the west to Aleppo in the east down to
Maharda and
Shaizar in the south. Due to the similarity between Palistin and Philistines,
Hittitologist John David Hawkins (who translated the Aleppo inscriptions) hypothesizes a connection between the
Syro-Hittite states Palistin and the Philistines, as do archaeologists Benjamin Sass and Kay Kohlmeyer.
Gershon Galil suggests that King David halted the Arameans' expansion into the Land of Israel on account of his alliance with the southern Philistine kings, as well as with Toi, king of Ḥamath, who is identified with Tai(ta) II, king of Palistin (the northern Sea Peoples).
State of Bit Agusi During the early years of the 1st millennium BC, Aleppo was incorporated into the
Aramean realm of
Bit Agusi, which held its capital at
Arpad. Bit Agusi along with Aleppo and the entirety of the Levant was conquered by the
Assyrians in the 8th century BC and became part of the
Neo-Assyrian Empire during the reign of
Tiglath-Pileser III until the late 7th century BC, before passing through the hands of the
Neo-Babylonians and the
Achaemenid Persians. The region remained known as
Aramea and
Eber Nari throughout these periods.
Classical antiquity (Beroea) basilica in
Barad Alexander the Great took over the city in 333 BC.
Seleucus Nicator established a
Hellenic settlement in the site between 301 and 286 BC. He called it
Beroea (Βέροια), after
Beroea in
Macedon; it is sometimes spelled as Beroia. Beroea is mentioned in
1 Macc. 9:4. Northern Syria was the center of gravity of the Hellenistic world and Greek culture in the
Seleucid Empire. As did other Greek cities of the Seleucid kingdom, Beroea probably enjoyed a measure of local autonomy, with a local civic assembly or
boulē composed of free Hellenes. Beroea remained under Seleucid rule until 88 BC when Syria was conquered by the
Armenian king
Tigranes the Great and Beroea became part of the
Kingdom of Armenia. After the
Roman victory over Tigranes, Syria was handed over to
Pompey in 64 BC, at which time they became a
Roman province. Rome's presence afforded relative stability in northern Syria for over three centuries. Although the province was administered by a
legate from Rome, Rome did not impose its administrative organization on the Greek-speaking ruling class or
Aramaic speaking populace. After the Arab conquest, Beroea ceased to be a residential bishopric, and is today listed by the
Roman Catholic Church as a
titular see. Very few physical remains have been found from the Roman and Byzantine periods in the Citadel of Aleppo. The two mosques inside the Citadel are known to have been converted by the
Mirdasids during the 11th century from churches originally built by the Byzantines.
Medieval period Early Islamic period , established in the 8th century The
Sasanian Persians led by King
Khosrow I pillaged and burned Aleppo in 540, then they
invaded and controlled Syria briefly in the early 7th century. Soon after Aleppo was
taken by the
Rashidun Muslims under
Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah in 637. It later became part of
Jund Qinnasrin under the
Umayyad Caliphate. In 944, it became the seat of an independent Emirate under the
Hamdanid prince
Sayf al-Dawla, and enjoyed a period of great prosperity, being home to the great poet
al-Mutanabbi and the philosopher and
polymath al-Farabi. In 962, the city was
sacked by the Byzantine general
Nikephoros Phokas. Subsequently, the city and its emirate
became a temporary vassal of the Byzantine Empire. For the next few decades, the city was disputed by the
Fatimid Caliphate and
Byzantine Empire, with the nominally independent Hamdanids in between, eventually falling to the Fatimids in 1017. In 1024,
Salih ibn Mirdas launched an attack on Fatimid Aleppo, and after a few months was invited into the city by its population. The
Mirdasid dynasty then ruled the city until 1080, interrupted only in 1038–1042, when it was in the hands of the Fatimid commander-in-chief in Syria,
Anushtakin al-Dizbari, and in 1057–1060, when it was ruled by a Fatimid governor,
Ibn Mulhim. Mirdasid rule was marked by internal squabbles between different Mirdasid chieftains that sapped the emirate's power and made it susceptible to external intervention by the Byzantines, Fatimids,
Uqaylids, and
Turkoman warrior bands.
Seljuq and Ayyubid periods restored in 1256 by Ayyubid
An-Nasir YusufIn late 1077, Seljuk emir
Tutush I launched a campaign to capture Aleppo during the reign of
Sabiq ibn Mahmud of the
Mirdasid dynasty, which lasted until 1080, when his reinforcements were ambushed and routed by a coalition of Arab tribesmen led by
Kilabi chief Abu Za'ida at
Wadi Butnan. After the death of
Sharaf al-Dawla of the
Uqaylid dynasty in June 1085, the headman in Aleppo
Sharif Hassan ibn Hibat Allah Al-Hutayti promised to surrender the city to Sultan
Malik-Shah I. When the latter delayed his arrival, Hassan contacted the Sultan's brother Tutush. However, after Tutush defeated
Suleiman ibn Qutulmish, who had intended to take Aleppo for himself, in the
battle of Ain Salm, Hassan went back on his commitment. In response, Tutush attacked the city and managed to get hold of parts of the walls and towers in July 1086, but he left in September, either due to the advance of Malik-Shah or because the Fatimids were besieging Damascus. In 1087,
Aq Sunqur al-Hajib became the Seljuk governor of Aleppo under Sultan Malik Shah I. During his bid for the Seljuk throne, Tutush had Aq Sunqur executed and after Tutush died in battle, the town was ruled by his son
Ridwan. The
city was besieged by
Crusaders led by the King of Jerusalem
Baldwin II in 1124–1125, but was not conquered after receiving protection by forces of
Aqsunqur al Bursuqi arriving from Mosul in January 1125. In 1128, Aleppo became capital of the expanding
Zengid dynasty, which ultimately conquered Damascus in 1154. In 1138, Byzantine emperor
John II Komnenos led a campaign, which main objective was to capture the city of Aleppo. On 20 April 1138, the Christian army including Crusaders from
Antioch and
Edessa launched an
attack on the city but found it too strongly defended, hence John II moved the army southward to take nearby fortresses. On 11 October 1138,
a deadly earthquake ravaged the city and the surrounding area. Although estimates from this time are very unreliable, it is believed that 230,000 people died, making it the
seventh deadliest earthquake in recorded history. In 1183, Aleppo came under the control of
Saladin and then the
Ayyubid dynasty. When the Ayyubids were toppled in Egypt by the
Mamluks, the Ayyubid emir of Aleppo
An-Nasir Yusuf became sultan of the remaining part of the Ayyubid Empire. He ruled Syria from his seat in Aleppo until, on 24 January 1260, the
city was taken by the
Mongols under
Hulagu in alliance with their vassals the
Frankish knights of the ruler of Antioch
Bohemond VI and his father-in-law the
Armenian ruler
Hethum I. The city was poorly defended by Turanshah, and as a result the walls fell after six days of siege, and the
citadel fell four weeks later. The Muslim population was massacred and many Jews were also killed. The Christian population was spared. Turanshah was shown unusual respect by the Mongols, and was allowed to live because of his age and bravery. The city was then given to the former Emir of
Homs,
al-Ashraf, and a Mongol garrison was established in the city. Some of the spoils were also given to Hethum I for his assistance in the attack. The Mongol Army then continued on to
Damascus, which surrendered, and the Mongols entered the city on 1 March 1260.
Mamluk period In September 1260, the Egyptian Mamluks negotiated for a treaty with the Franks of Acre which allowed them to pass through Crusader territory unmolested, and engaged the Mongols at the
Battle of Ain Jalut on 3 September 1260. The Mamluks won a decisive victory, killing the Mongols' Nestorian Christian general
Kitbuqa, and five days later they had retaken Damascus. Aleppo was recovered by the Muslims within a month, and a Mamluk governor placed to govern the city. Hulagu sent troops to try to recover Aleppo in December. They were able to massacre a large number of Muslims in retaliation for the death of Kitbuqa, but after a fortnight could make no other progress and had to retreat. of the Mamluk period The Mamluk governor of the city became insubordinate to the central Mamluk authority in Cairo, and in Autumn 1261 the Mamluk leader
Baibars sent an army to reclaim the city. In October 1271, the Mongols led by general
Samagar took the city again, attacking with 10,000 horsemen from
Anatolia, and defeating the
Turcoman troops who were defending Aleppo. The Mamluk garrisons fled to
Hama, until Baibars came north again with his main army, and the Mongols retreated. On 20 October 1280, the Mongols took the city again, pillaging the markets and burning the mosques. The Muslim inhabitants fled for Damascus, where the Mamluk leader
Qalawun assembled his forces. When his army advanced following the
Second Battle of Homs in October 1281, the Mongols again retreated, back across the
Euphrates. In October 1299,
Ghazan captured the city, joined by his vassal Armenian King
Hethum II, whose forces included some
Templars and
Hospitallers. In 1400, the Mongol-Turkic leader
Tamerlane captured the city again from the Mamluks. He massacred many of the inhabitants, ordering the building of a tower of 20,000 skulls outside the city. After the withdrawal of the Mongols, all the Muslim population returned to Aleppo. On the other hand, Christians who left the city during the Mongol invasion, were unable to resettle back in their own quarter in the old town, a fact that led them to establish a new neighbourhood in 1420, built at the northern suburbs of Aleppo outside the city walls, to become known as
al-Jdeydeh quarter ("new district" ).
Ottoman era interior before its dome collapsed by
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (the earliest photograph of the city) Aleppo became part of the
Ottoman Empire in 1516 as part of the vast expansion of the Ottoman borders during the reign of
Selim I. The city then had around 50,000 inhabitants, or 11,224 households according to an Ottoman census. In 1517, Selim I obtained a fatwa from Sunnite religious leaders and unleashed violence on the
Alawites, killing 9,400 men, which is known as the
Massacre of the Telal. It was the centre of the
Aleppo Eyalet; the rest of what later became Syria was part of either the eyalets of Damascus, Tripoli, Sidon or
Raqqa. Following the Ottoman provincial reform of 1864 Aleppo became the centre of the newly constituted Vilayet of Aleppo in 1866. Aleppo's agriculture was well-developed in the
Ottoman period. Archaeological excavations revealed water mills in its river basin. Contemporary Chinese source also suggests Aleppo in the Ottoman period had well-developed animal husbandry. Moreover, thanks to its strategic geographic location on the trade route between
Anatolia and the east, Aleppo rose to high prominence in the Ottoman era, at one point being second only to
Constantinople in the empire. By the middle of the 16th century, Aleppo had displaced
Damascus as the principal market for goods coming to the Mediterranean region from the east. This is reflected by the fact that the
Levant Company of London, a joint-trading company founded in 1581 to monopolize England's trade with the Ottoman Empire, never attempted to settle a factor, or agent, in Damascus, despite having had permission to do so. Aleppo served as the company's headquarters until the late 18th century. As a result of the economic development, many European states had opened consulates in Aleppo during the 16th and the 17th centuries, such as the consulate of the
Republic of Venice in 1548, the consulate of
France in 1562, the consulate of
England in 1583 and the consulate of the
Netherlands in 1613. The
Armenian community of Aleppo also rose to prominence in this period as they moved into the city to take up trade and developed the new quarter of Judayda. The most outstanding among Aleppine
Armenian merchants during the late 16th and early 17th centuries were
Khwaja Petik Chelebi, the richest merchant in the city, and his brother
Khwaja Sanos Chelebi, who monopolized Aleppine silk trade and were important patrons of the Armenians. However, the prosperity Aleppo experienced in the 16th and 17th century started to fade as silk production in Iran went into decline with the fall of the
Safavid dynasty in 1722. By mid-century, caravans were no longer bringing silk from Iran to Aleppo, and local Syrian production was insufficient for Europe's demand. European merchants left Aleppo and the city went into an economic decline that was not reversed until the mid-19th century when locally produced cotton and tobacco became the principal commodities of interest to the Europeans. The economy of Aleppo was badly hit by the opening of the
Suez Canal in 1869. This, in addition to political instability that followed the implementation of significant reforms in 1841 by the central government, contributed to Aleppo's decline and the rise of Damascus as a serious economic and political competitor with Aleppo. , dating back to the early 17th century Reference is made to the city in 1606 in William Shakespeare's
Macbeth. The witches torment the captain of the ship the
Tiger, which was headed to Aleppo from England and endured a 567-day voyage before returning unsuccessfully to port. Reference is also made to the city in Shakespeare's
Othello when Othello speaks his final words (ACT V, ii, 349f.): "Set you down this/And say besides that in Aleppo once,/Where a malignant and a turbanned Turk/Beat a Venetian and traduced the state,/I took by th' throat the circumcised dog/And smote him—thus!" (Arden Shakespeare Edition, 2004). The English naval chaplain
Henry Teonge describes in his diary a visit he paid to the city in 1675, when there was a colony of Western European merchants living there. The city remained under Ottoman rule until the empire's collapse, but was occasionally riven with internal feuds as well as attacks of
cholera from 1823. Around 20–25 percent of the population died of
plague in 1827. In 1850, a Muslim mob
attacked Christian neighbourhoods, tens of Christians were killed and several churches looted. Though this event has been portrayed as driven by pure sectarian principles, Bruce Masters argues that such analysis of this period of violence is too shallow and neglects the tensions that existed among the population due to the commercial favor afforded to certain
Christian minorities by the
Tanzimat Reforms during this time which played a large role in creating antagonism between previously cooperative groups of Muslim and Christians in the eastern quarters of the city. By 1901, the city's population was around 110,000. In October 1918, Aleppo was
captured by
Prince Feisal's Sherifial Forces and the
5th Cavalry Division of the
Allied forces from the Ottoman Empire during the
World War I. At the end of war, the
Treaty of Sèvres made most of the Vilayet of Aleppo, including the cities of
Urfa,
Marash, and
Aintab, part of the newly established nation of
Syria. However,
Kemal Atatürk annexed most of the Vilayet of Aleppo as well as
Allied-controlled Cilicia to Turkey in his
War of Independence. The Muslim Arab and Kurdish residents in the province supported the Turks in this war against the French, including the leader of the
Hananu Revolt,
Ibrahim Hananu, who directly coordinated with Atatürk and received weaponry from him. The outcome, however, was disastrous for Aleppo, because as per the
Treaty of Lausanne, most of the vilayet was made part of Turkey with the exception of Aleppo and
Alexandretta; thus Aleppo was cut from its northern satellites which connected it to the Anatolian cities beyond on which Aleppo depended heavily in commerce. Moreover, the
Sykes-Picot division of the Near East separated Aleppo from most of
Mesopotamia, including its twin city of Mosul, which also harmed the economy of Aleppo. The outcome of these newly created borders was epochal, as they redirected Syria's would-be capital from Aleppo to Damascus.
French mandate crossing through al-Khandaq street on 13 September 1920 The
State of Aleppo was declared by French General
Henri Gouraud in September 1920 as part of a French plan to make Syria easier to administer by dividing it into several smaller states. France became more concerned about the idea of a united Syria after the
Battle of Maysaloun. By separating Aleppo from Damascus, Gouraud wanted to capitalize on a traditional state of competition between the two cities and turn it into political division. The people in Aleppo were unhappy with the fact that Damascus was chosen as capital for the new nation of Syria. Gouraud sensed this sentiment and tried to address it by making Aleppo the capital of a large and wealthier state with which it would have been hard for Damascus to compete. The State of Aleppo as drawn by France contained most of the fertile area of Syria: the fertile countryside of Aleppo in addition to the entire fertile basin of river
Euphrates. The state also had access to sea via the autonomous
Sanjak of Alexandretta. On the other hand, Damascus, which is basically an oasis on the fringes of the
Syrian Desert, had neither enough fertile land nor access to sea. Basically, Gouraud wanted to satisfy Aleppo by giving it control over most of the agricultural and mineral wealth of Syria so that it would never want to unite with Damascus again. Damascus's relative economic weakness was further exacerbated by the economic success of Beirut during the 1920s, a territory part of the larger French Mandate at the time. However, Aleppo also suffered economic disadvantage from the newly emerged mandate borders. A telling example is the 1921 Franco-Turkey Treaty, which led to
Turkey imposing high customs for trade. This was an economic blow for Aleppo, as it largely cut off the city from its hinterland, which was in the east of Turkey and the northwest of Iraq. However, due to strong pre-existing social ties with its traditional hinterland and the French administration quietly allowing it, a vast smuggling network provided Aleppo its economic lifeline. Bad economic situation of the city after the separation of the northern countryside was exacerbated further in 1939 when
Alexandretta was annexed to Turkey as
Hatay State, thus depriving Aleppo of its main port of
Iskenderun and leaving it in total isolation within Syria.
Post-independence upon the independence of Syria The increasing disagreements between Aleppo and Damascus led eventually to the split of the
National Block into two factions: the
National Party, established in Damascus in 1946, and the
People's Party, established in Aleppo in 1948 by
Rushdi al-Kikhya,
Nazim Qudsi and
Mustafa Bey Barmada. An underlying cause of the disagreement, in addition to the union with Iraq, was Aleppo's intention to relocate the capital from Damascus. The issue of the capital became an open debate matter in 1950 when the Popular Party presented a constitution draft that called Damascus a "temporary capital". and adjacent highway, 1950 , 1950 The first
coup d'état in modern Syrian history was carried out in March 1949 by an army officer from Aleppo,
Hussni Zaim. However, lured by the absolute power he enjoyed as a dictator, Zaim soon developed a pro-Egyptian, pro-Western orientation and abandoned the cause of union with Iraq. This incited a second coup only four months after his. The second coup, led by
Sami Hinnawi (also officer from Aleppo), empowered the Popular Party and actively sought to realize the union with Iraq. The news of an imminent union with Iraq incited a third coup the same year: in December 1949,
Adib Shishakly led a coup preempting a union with Iraq that was about to be declared. Soon after Shishakly's domination ended in 1954, a
union with Egypt under
Gamal Abdul Nasser was implemented in 1958. The union, however, collapsed three and a half years later when a junta of young Damascene officers carried out a separatist coup. Aleppo resisted the separatist coup, but eventually it had no choice but to recognize the new government. In March 1963 a coalition of
Baathists,
Nasserists, and Socialists launched a new coup whose declared objective was to restore the union with Egypt. However, the new government only restored the flag of the union. Soon thereafter disagreement between the Baathists and the Nasserists over the restoration of the union became a crisis, and the Baathists ousted the Nasserists from power. The Nasserists, most of whom were from the Aleppine middle class, responded with an insurgency in Aleppo in July 1963. Again, the Ba'ath government tried to absorb the dissent of the Syrian middle class (whose center of political activism was Aleppo) by putting to the front
Amin al-Hafiz, a Baathist military officer from Aleppo. President
Hafez al-Assad, who came to power in 1970, relied on support from the business class in Damascus. This gave Damascus further advantage over Aleppo, and hence Damascus came to dominate the Syrian economy. The strict centralization of the Syrian state, the intentional direction of resources towards Damascus, and the hegemony Damascus enjoys over the Syrian economy made it increasingly hard for Aleppo to compete. Despite this, Aleppo remained a nationally important economic and cultural center. On 16 June 1979, thirty-two military cadets were
massacred by antigovernmental Islamist rebel group
Muslim Brotherhood. In the subsequent violence around fifty people were killed. On 10 July a further twenty-two Syrian soldiers were killed. Both terrorist attacks were part of the
Islamist uprising in Syria. In 1980, events escalated into the
a large-scale military operation in Aleppo, where Syrian government responded with military and security forces, sending in tens of thousands of troops backed by tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters. Several hundred rebels were killed in and around city and eight thousand were arrested. By February 1981, the Islamist uprising in the city of Aleppo was suppressed. Since the late 1990s, Aleppo has become one of the fastest growing cities in the Levant and the Middle East. In 2006, Aleppo was named by the
Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) as the capital of Islamic culture. Before the Syrian civil war, Aleppo was the third largest city in the Middle East after Cairo and Beirut in terms of the number of Christians.
Syrian civil war after being targeted by Al-Nusra Front in October 2012 On 12 August 2011, some months after protests had begun elsewhere in Syria, anti-government protests were held in several districts of Aleppo, including the city's Sakhour district. During this demonstration, which included tens of thousands of protesters, security forces shot and killed at least twelve people. Two months later, a pro-government demonstration was held in
Saadallah Al-Jabiri Square, in the heart of the city. According to the
New York Times, the 11 October 2011 rally in support of
Bashar al-Assad was attended by large crowds, while state and local media claimed more than 1.5 million attended and stated that it was one of the largest rallies ever held in Syria. In early 2012, rebels began bombing Aleppo after the spread of anti-government protests. On
10 February 2012, suicide
car bombs exploded outside two security compounds — the
Military Intelligence Directorate's local headquarters, and a Syrian
Internal Security Forces barracks — reportedly killing 28 (four civilians, thirteen military personnel and eleven security personnel) On 18 March 2012, another car bomb blast in a residential neighbourhood reportedly killed two security personnel and one female civilian, and wounded 30 residents. tank in the city in October 2012 In late July 2012, the conflict reached Aleppo in earnest when rebels in the city's surrounding countryside mounted their first offensive there, apparently trying to capitalise on momentum gained during the Damascus assault. Then, some of the civil war's "most devastating bombing and fiercest fighting" took place in Aleppo, often in residential areas. As a result of the severe battle, many sections in
Al-Madina Souq (part of the
Old City of Aleppo World Heritage Site), including parts of the
Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo and other medieval buildings in the ancient city, were destroyed and ruined or burnt in late summer 2012 as the armed groups of the
Syrian Arab Army and the
Free Syrian Army fought for control of the city. after being destroyed on 6 November 2012 A stalemate that had been in place for four years ended in July 2016, when Syrian Army troops closed the last supply line of the rebels into Aleppo with the support of Russian airstrikes. In response, rebel forces launched unsuccessful counter-offensives in September and October that failed to break the siege; in November, government forces embarked on a decisive campaign. The rebels agreed to evacuate from their remaining areas in December 2016. Syrian government victory with Russian aerial bombardment was widely seen as a potential turning point in Syria's civil war. On 22 December, the evacuation was completed with the Syrian Army declaring it had taken complete control of the city. Red Cross later confirmed that the evacuation of all civilians and rebels was complete. When the battle ended, 500,000 refugees and internally displaced persons returned to Aleppo, Many parts of the city that were affected are undergoing reconstruction. Syrian state media reported that the Aleppo shopping festival took place on 17 November 2017 to promote industry in the city. A
YPG commander stated in February 2018 that Kurdish fighters had shifted to
Afrin to help repel the
Turkish assault. As a result, he said the pro-Syrian government forces had regained control of the districts previously controlled by them. In February 2020, government forces achieved a major breakthrough when they captured the last remaining rebel-held areas in Aleppo's western periphery, thus decisively ending the clashes that began with the
Battle of Aleppo over eight years prior. The city suffered damage due to the
2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake.
Takeover by Syrian opposition On 29 November 2024,
Syrian opposition groups, led by
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, captured the city during the
Battle of Aleppo as part of the
offensive in northwestern Syria. On 31st December 2025, a
suicide bomber attempted to target a
church in the
Bab al-Faraj neighborhood. The explosive belt detonated near a security patrol which killed one and wounded two. There were suspected links between the
Islamic state and the bomber. ==Geography==