Turkey’s main border crossings with north-west Syria remain closed for a second day as tens of thousands of refugees flee a Russian bombardment and a ground offensive by pro-government groups that has all but besieged Aleppo.
Aid agencies in southern Turkey were scrambling to deliver food and shelter to whole communities that had fled the most sustained attack of the five-year war, with some arrivals claiming their towns and villages had been decimated by indiscriminate bombing. The United Nations estimated that 20,000 people had gathered at the Bab al-Salam border crossing. Most are believed to be among the poorest residents of northern Syria, who had remained behind throughout a conflict that had emptied out the countryside between Aleppo and the border, and whittled away the rebel-held east of the city itself.
The regime push marks one of the most decisive phases of the war, and comes after three years of setbacks in the north, in which most of Aleppo and Idlib provinces had fallen from the grasp of Damascus.
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