????敘利亞內戰(zhàn)已經導致70,000多人喪生,。上周，它又增添了一大罪狀,。在政府軍與反對派武裝的一次沖突中,，奧馬雅清真寺（Umayyad mosque）的尖塔轟然倒塌。據(jù)報道,，它是被坦克炮彈擊中而毀,，而數(shù)世紀以來，這座尖塔一直是阿勒頗天際線上一道亮麗的風景,。

????你可能也聽到了幾英里外,，在呼嘯的子彈聲和隆隆的迫擊炮聲中阿勒頗市中心這座尖塔轟然倒塌的巨響，而這里的居民生活仍維持著表面上的正常生活,。廣受歡迎的黎巴嫩啤酒Almaza的價格已經大幅飆升,，但酒吧仍滿座,。年輕人依舊在大街上嬉笑打鬧。不停電的時候,，依然能看到HBO,。

????“如果因為害怕就一直待在家里，你會瘋掉的,，”一名要求匿名的敘利亞男性表示,。他說，上世紀80年代貝魯特陷入戰(zhàn)亂時,，很多敘利亞人聽說黎巴嫩人在整座城市變成一片廢墟時仍出入夜總會時,，總是嘲笑不已?！暗F(xiàn)在,，在阿勒頗，女人們還是在做指甲和頭發(fā),。我們上咖啡館,。我們抽水煙。飯店內也滿座......雖然這么做有些負罪感,。因為幾公里之外,，有人正在死去?！?/p>

????維持正常生活的意愿符合圍城經濟邏輯,。隨著在阿勒頗的戰(zhàn)斗持續(xù)，資源流向已經調整為如何滿足城內的生活需要,，而且開始有利于反對派一方。

阿勒頗的困境

????阿勒頗坐落在敘利亞最北部,，臨近土耳其邊境,，是敘利亞最大的城市（人口400萬），也是敘利亞的經濟中心,。2011年初爆發(fā)內戰(zhàn)之前的十年,，這個城市經歷了一輪經濟繁榮。自由市場改革催生了商業(yè)精英,，這些人中很多都與敘利亞總統(tǒng)巴沙爾?阿薩德的統(tǒng)治階層有關聯(lián),。失業(yè)率下降。房價上漲,，部分是由于伊拉克難民的流入導致住房供應緊張,。

????或許是由于經濟形勢不錯，阿勒頗沒有立即卷入政府軍與反對派的沖突中,。阿勒頗的基督徒和土庫曼人不想被拖入執(zhí)政的阿拉維派與對立的遜尼派之間的爭斗中,。因此,，席卷霍姆斯和德拉的街頭抗議一開始并沒有在阿勒頗出現(xiàn)。

????所有這些在2012年7月都變了,。當時,，由軍方叛逃者領導的反對武裝——敘利亞自由軍（Free Syrian Army)對政府控制的重鎮(zhèn)阿勒頗展開大規(guī)模攻擊。很多分析都將阿勒頗視為敘利亞政府存亡之關鍵,，為此政府派出了成千上萬的援軍來堅守市中心和反擊反政府武裝,。

????從去年夏季開始，阿勒頗外圍已變成了一個狙擊手出沒,、布滿地雷的戰(zhàn)場,。數(shù)十萬人逃離。難民們涌入市中心,，依靠由耶穌會（Jesuits）等運營的慈善機構,。觀察人士警告，當?shù)乜赡軙霈F(xiàn)人道主義危機,。

????時至今日,，戰(zhàn)爭仍在持續(xù)。政府軍飛機時常低空掃射反政府武裝控制的地區(qū),。庫爾德人這樣的少數(shù)民族也已組織起自己的武裝力量,。坦克在大街上逡巡。阿勒頗的中世紀城堡及其所在的,、具有戰(zhàn)略意義的山頭也再一次駐扎上了軍隊,。

????經過數(shù)月的戰(zhàn)斗，反政府武裝已取得了上風,。如今,，反對派已經包圍了政府控制的市中心，切斷了來自大馬士革的后續(xù)增援,。

????Last week, the war in Syria, which has killed more than 70,000 people, claimed another prominent victim. During a clash between regime and opposition troops, the minaret of Aleppo's ancient Umayyad mosque -- for centuries the most striking feature of the city's skyline -- tumbled, reportedly brought down by a tank shell.

????You could have heard the minaret falling miles away in Aleppo's city center, where, against a backdrop of gunfire and the whump of mortars, residents maintain an improbable veneer of normalcy. While the price of Almaza, a popular Lebanese beer, has skyrocketed, bars are full. Young people flirt in the street. When the power's on, you can still get HBO.

????"If you stay in your house because you're scared, you'll go crazy," said one Syrian man who requested anonymity. He said when war embroiled Beirut in the 1980s, Syrians used to laugh after they heard stories of the Lebanese going to nightclubs while the city around them was ground to rubble. "But now, here in Aleppo, women are getting manicures and doing their hair. We go to cafés. We smoke shisha. The restaurants are very crowded ... It feels guilty, though. A few kilometers away, people are dying."

????The will to carry on a normal life fits the economic logic of the siege. As the fighting in Aleppo drags on, resource flows have adapted to accommodate life inside -- and to support the opposition forces vying for control.

Aleppo's plight

????Located in the far north, near the Turkish border, Aleppo is Syria's largest city (population: 4 million) and the country's economic capital. In the decade before the civil war, which broke out in early 2011, the city enjoyed an economic boom. Liberal market reforms boosted the business elite, many of whom have ties to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Unemployment dropped. And property prices climbed, partly due to housing supply pressures from an influx of Iraqi refugees.

????Perhaps because times were good, Aleppo was not immediately embroiled in the conflict. The city's Christians and Turkmen did not want to be dragged into a fight between the regime's Alawites and the opposition's Sunnis. So the city did not initially witness the street protests that shook Homs and Daraa.

????All of that changed in July, 2012, when the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an opposition group led by military defectors, launched a large-scale attack on the regime stronghold of Aleppo. Many analysts consider Aleppo a linchpin for the Syrian regime, which sent thousands of reinforcements to hold the city center and beat back the rebels.

????Starting last summer, Aleppo's outskirts became sniper-haunted battlefields, stippled with mines. Hundreds of thousands fled. Refugees crowded the city center and now depend on charities, like those operated by the Jesuits. Observers warned of a humanitarian crisis.

????Today, the fighting continues. Regime aircraft strafe rebel-controlled neighborhoods. Ethnic minorities, like the Kurds, have organized their own militias. Tanks sweep the streets. The medieval citadel of Aleppo, and the strategic hilltop on which it sits, once again houses troops.

????Yet after months of fighting, the rebels have the momentum. Opposition units now encircle the regime-controlled city center, cutting off further reinforcements from Damascus.