""The ruined corner of downtown Aleppo does not, of course,
constitute a state and nor does it belong to the man claiming it in his name.
But as the Syrian civil war has stagnated and Aleppo has fractured into
"liberated" neighbourhoods run by different militias, Abu Ali and commanders
like him have become the rulers of a series of mini-fiefdoms. These two blocks
of the rebel frontline in Saif al-Dawla are his.""