In Syria, a sudden reminder of a war that never ended

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Syria’s smoldering civil war has roared back onto the world stage. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist militant group, launched a lightning strike from its northwestern redoubt late last week to capture most of Aleppo, the country’s largest city, and advance south toward the central city of Hama, as my colleagues have reported. Videos posted by HTS appeared to show its fighters raising a flag near Aleppo’s historic citadel and setting up checkpoints in and around the city.