ALEPPO -- Just days after U.S. led airstrikes targeted Syria's chemical weapons facilities, the Assad regime led celebrations, as Tuesday marked Syria's version of the Fourth of July. In Aleppo, Syrians celebrated their historic independence from France.

An outdoor concert of opera and folk dancing may not be how many would imagine an evening in the city, but Syria's government wants to show strength in the wake of those strikes. The city was divided by fierce fighting as the government battled rebel forces.

But not far from the event, war still rages. Rival rebel groups in northern Syria are fighting each other to the west, and to the south, Russian and Syrian airstrikes have been pounding rebel positions in Idlib.

Syrians, at least in government-controlled territory, are celebrating recent wins, and trying to look forward.