Day 1,138: A new week after a grim weekend

Today is Day 1,138 of the Syrian conflict.

It's been hard to imagine the experience of being in Aleppo this past week during the government bombardments pictured above and below. As of this morning, however, that task got a little bit easier: BBC reporter Ian Pannell and Cameraman Darren Conway, the first "Western broadcasters" to reach the inside of the city this year, have posted a report from inside Aleppo. The accompanying video shows a post-apocalyptic ghost city. A grey-bearded man — one of the only people seen as the team drives through — waves, as Pannell explains the indiscriminate effects of barrel bombs.

A man walks past a burning building following a reported air strike by pro-regime forces on the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on April 24. (Khaled Khatib/AFP/Getty Images)

Yesterday afternoon saw two noteworthy developments in the conflict.

First, Syria missed its revised deadline for getting rid of its chemical weapons. An estimated 7.5 percent of the arsenal remains in the country, according to the UN. Again: The chemicals being counted in this project do not include chlorine gas, which the government allegedly dropped on at least one town in the past month.

Second: Iraq carried out its first strike inside Syria. The circumstances are nearly identical to Jordan's first strike two weeks ago: The Iraqi army, from the air, attacked a rebel convoy as it tried to approach the Iraqi border. The "tanker trucks … were trying to enter Iraqi territory to provide the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with fuel," said Iraqi's interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan. ISIL is a jihadist group that the Iraqi government has been battling inside Iraq, even before the group became active in Syria fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.

Finally, The Washington Post has a good profile of the moderate rebel group Harakat Hazm, the one whose fighters were seen in that Youtube video last week, using American antitank missiles. Apparently the reason the US chose to send the weapons to Harakat Hazm, at least to start with, has as much to do with their discipline as their moderate ideology.

The conflict continues.