Fighters of the Free Syrian Army fire an anti-aircraft weapon in the rebel-held Mashhad area in southeastern Aleppo, on December 12, 2016, as they battle Syrian government forces during an operation to retake the embattled city. The crucial battle for Aleppo entered its “final phase” after Syrian rebels retreated into a small pocket of their former bastion in the face of new army advances. The retreat leaves opposition fighters confined to just a handful of neighbourhoods in southeast Aleppo, the largest of them Sukkari and Mashhad. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A Syrian boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported airstrike on April 27, 2016 in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in the northern city of Aleppo. The Syrian army was preparing an offensive to retake the whole of Aleppo, as fighting in the divided second city killed 38 civilians in a new blow for a tattered truce. Nearly 200 people have been killed in Aleppo in the past week as rebels have pounded government-held neighbourhoods with rocket and artillery fire and the regime has hit rebel areas with air raids. (Photo by Karam Al-Masri/AFP Photo)

A Turkey-backed Syrian fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade as he takes part in a military exercise in the countryside of the northwestern city of Afrin, in rebel-held part of Aleppo province, on May 31, 2022. (Photo by Rami al Sayed/AFP Photo)

This file photo provided on Sunday February 15, 2015 by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows Syrian rebels firing locally made shells against the Syrian government forces, in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo by AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center)

Rebel fighters from the Jaish al- Fatah (or Army of Conquest) brigades manoeuver an alleged explosive- rigged make- shift armoured vehicle during a major assault on Syrian government forces West of Aleppo city on October 28, 2016 Syrian opposition fighters launched a major assault on government forces to break a months- long siege of rebel- held neighbourhoods of the battered city of Aleppo. Rebel groups including the powerful Ahrar al- Sham faction and former Al- Qaeda affiliate Fateh al- Sham Front fired waves of rockets into government- held western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians, a monitor said. (Photo by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP Photo)

Syrian rescue workers and residents help an injured woman following a reported air strike by government forces on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Haydariya in the northern city of Aleppo on April 10, 2016. (Photo by Thaer Mohammed/AFP Photo)

An opposition fighter from the Failaq al-Rahman brigade fires a heavy machine gun in Jobar, a rebel-held district on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, on March 19, 2017. (Photo by Amer Almohibany/AFP Photo)

Rebel fighters fire towards positions of regime forces in Ramussa on the southwestern edges of Syria's northern city of Aleppo on August 6, 2016. Syrian rebels said they have broken a three-week government siege of second city Aleppo, turning the tables on Russian-backed regime forces who are now on the defensive. (Photo by Fadi Al-Halabi/AFP Photo)