The battle to control Syria's second largest city "constitutes a serious escalation" of the fighting in the country, the US State Department said Monday, DPA reported.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland pointed to the "absolutely indefensible and abhorrent" use of military planes, helicopters and tanks against civilians in Aleppo as a sign that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad could no longer claim to be fighting "a few outliers."
"The regime's got a fight on its hands because it did not do what it should've done months and months and months ago, which is end this violence and start a political transition," Nuland said, noting gains by the opposition.
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