Later in the summer , rebels capitalised on this strategic weakness . In late July , rebels launched an offensive west of Aleppo city culminating in the capture of several suburbs and a massacre of captured government soldiers , and on 5 August , the long-besieged Menagh Airbase in the north of the province fell to the rebels . On 26 August , rebels captured the strategic town of Khanasir , thus cutting the government 's last land supply route to the contested city of Aleppo
a massacre of captured government soldiers
Khan al-Assal massacre
Aleppo offensive (October–December 2013)