HERE are the three things you need to know in order to understand where the Syrian war stands today:

1. The battle for Aleppo is escalating, and it’s an important one. President Bashar Assad’s government is stepping up its offensive in Syria’s largest city, where fighting between opposition rebels and regime forces has been at a veritable stalemate for much of the last year — with the opposition largely in control.

But Assad is looking to strengthen his standing in Aleppo in advance of January peace talks in Geneva. So his forces have escalated their air assault, blitzing rebel-controlled neighborhoods with shells crude (but highly effective) “barrel bombs” for the last eight days.

2. Qalamoun is the biggest battle you’ve never heard of. This mountainous area is south of Damascus, near Lebanon. It’s being fought for tooth and nail because it borders the main highway from Damascus to Homs and is thus a crucial lifeline for the regime.

The fighting, which has gone from village to village, has resulted in an exodus of tens of thousands of refugees from the area into Lebanon’s dirt-poor Bekaa valley. The opposition is pouring resources into the area, hoping to wrest the highway from Assad.

But the Syrian president has help here from Hezbollah, the militant group, which controls Lebanon and has proven a steadfast ally of the regime. Hezbollah’s been sending hundreds of fighters across the border to assist the regime in Qalamoun, and that edge should give Assad the advantage.

3. Extremist groups are consolidating their power — and fast. When Jabhat Al-Nusra made its first appearance in Syria in January of 2012, the extremist group was seen as a concern, but not an overpowering threat. Then Al-Qaeda’s Syrian arm, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), moved in and began filling the country’s power vacuum. It quickly seized control of Raqqa, which had been the first city the opposition had “liberated” from the government, and has made major advances in other areas of Syria.