In Aleppo in mid-December 2016

Most Western media, commentators and politicians were not in doubt: Aleppo fell (back) to "the regime", to "the dictator". Their focus was on civilians and moderate rebels, as they are called, being killed in the last hours of the battle about Eastern Aleppo that had been occupied since mid-2012.

I was there — both in the East and the West of Aleppo — when it happened. I was in Aleppo's Hanano district, its Old Town and in the Shaykh Najjar Industrial City.

I walked the streets and could talk to and photograph anybody I wanted to, no one guiding me to particular persons.

These pictures here are real. They are genuine.