awaiting their fate with trepidation

[little2add]

Aleppo, Syria

Tens of thousands of people have fled the relentless bombing and shelling that has paved the way for dramatic battlefield gains by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and its allies. Hundreds of thousands more remain trapped, awaiting their fate with trepidation.

The battlefield has been transformed, the balance of forces pulverized and the prospects for peace talks -- already dark -- virtually extinguished. Another tide of displaced civilians converge on the Turkish border, trapped by the advance of regime forces. 

Last week, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, supported by Iranian and Lebanese Shia militia, severed the main road from Aleppo to the Turkish border, a narrow corridor through which the rebels and NGOs alike moved supplies. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that several villages in the area were hit by airstrikes on Sunday. 

A defining battle for Aleppo, Syria's largest city before the war, seems imminent. Regime forces and their allies on the ground, supported by Russian bombers in the air, are tightening the noose around the eastern half of the city, still held by a coalition of rebel groups. It's estimated some 320,000 people still live, or subsist, there -- under continual bombardment.

 

Prayers desperately needed  for the innocent children of Aleppo, Syria.

[little2add]

You thought Syria couldn't get much worse. Think again

Edited February 8, 2016 by little2add