LONDON • It took less than an hour for the United States, French and British military to hit at military targets in Syria, in retaliation for that country's alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people. But a week after that attack, another and much more vicious fight continues unabated - a battle over the public narrative, over who is to blame for what is going on in Syria, and who the real aggressor is.

There is little doubt over the sheer intensity of this verbal assault: "I've seen more anger from some about American, British and French strikes in Syria in the past week than I've seen about the entirety of Russian and Iranian interventions in Syria over the past five years," remarked Dr Hisham Hellyer, an Egyptian-based academic widely respected for his Middle Eastern analysis.