It's bad enough that more than 100 people are being killed every day in the conflict over Aleppo, the vast majority of them civilians. Now comes evidence of a toxic gas attack on a rebel-held area in the besieged Syrian city. Rebels say the attack, which reportedly left four people dead and many injured, was carried out by government forces using chlorine gas. If confirmed, the UN special envoy for Syria said it would amount to a war crime. The term "war crime", as serious as it is, does not accurately reflect what is happening in Aleppo. The label does not do justice to what is a genuine human tragedy. As grievous an incident as it is, the gas attack is just the latest aspect of the Aleppo quagmire. Nobody can win the battle for Aleppo. No one party can come out triumphant when there are so many competing parties involved: the US-led international coalition, Russian aircraft and ground troops, forces with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the Syrian regime, revolutionary forces, the Iranian army, mercenaries from Hezbollah, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) fighters. Then there are the four forces competing for victory. The Russian air force is carrying out intensive raids on the city in order to expel Daesh, while forces with the coalition are staging airstrikes in the same areas with the same objective. Regime forces are shelling Aleppo to break the Syrian opposition deployed in areas of the city. They have been joined by Kurdish pro-federalist forces seeking to occupy towns around Aleppo and expel their inhabitants in order to change the local demography and annex them to a future Kurdish federal state. The demands of the warring parties are mutually exclusive. The Kurds want to clear that area of Syria of its Arab population in order to flesh out the borders of the Kurdish region they want to establish in the north of the country. The Syrian regime and Iran aim to inflict the greatest possible number of casualties on the armed Syrian opposition and civilians for supporting it. The Russians want to tip the balance of power on the ground against the opposition. The US is trying to push back Daesh which is fighting to preserve the emirate it wants to extend throughout Syria. The Free Syrian Army is fighting to establish a democratic and citizenship-based state to replace the existing authoritarian order. Is it any wonder then that in the middle of this mess, there has been a gas attack, affecting children and the elderly alike? It is no surprise; there is a precedent for these attacks in Syria, most notably the August 2013 sarin nerve agent attack in Ghouta which killed upwards of 1,000 people. Syria is so complex that it would be wrong to claim, as some reports have, that the long battle for Aleppo has entered a decisive phase. There is no conclusive end. The fates of the regime, the opposition, regional powers like Turkey and Iran and outside powers Russia and the US are in limbo. Reports that Syrian rebels had broken through to opposition-held areas in eastern Aleppo are not certain. The situation is too fluid and the heavy fighting and air strikes reported from the area seemed to indicate any passage that may have been opened would be far from secure enough for civilians to travel through. Thus far, the Syrian opposition has not budged from Aleppo. It has remained steadfast despite the aerial and ground forces targeting it. They have fought hard but must now face the Syrian army and its Russian backers with what little resources they have left. And where rebels do have a foothold in Aleppo, they face a regime willing to indiscriminately use weapons banned under international law. Just one more problem added to a situation that cannot afford it.
