This was a battle in which the best possible outcome was for both sides to have annihilated each other.  The al Assad regime is just as bad as ISIL in the level of destruction that it has brought about to Syria and its' people.  The body count is staggering and the methods to deliberately kill their own civilian population can best be described as gruesome mass murder.  The al Assad regime has violated every condition of the Geneva Convention, which accounts for every conceivable war crime that can be prosecuted.  This is no celebration.  It only brings sharper focus of the need bring about war crimes indictments against al Assad, his family members, and his hangers on.