The woes of war in Syria's largest city Aleppo have obliged families to run away from their city fleeing the raging conflict and leaving behind life-long memories with broken hearts and homes.
Amid diminishing prospects of the possibility of an imminent solution to the 23-month-long crisis in Syria, millions of Syrians found themselves locked in a seemingly endless fighting that has forced them to flee their homes, especially in Aleppo that has received the lion's share of fighting between the government troops and the armed rebels seeking to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad by force.
Um Omar, a mother of four, told Xinhua that she had fled Aleppo city after the battles between the rebels and the government spread from the countryside and engulfed the city itself.
The 32-year-old woman has sought shelter at a school in the capital Damascus along with 24 members of her extended family.
Sitting cross-legged on a thin rug at one of the school's once classroom, Um Omar revealed that she was once a sympathizer of the rebels Free Army until they came to their area in Masaken Hanano and brought with them the bitterness of war.
She said that once the rebels entered their areas, the army troops rolled in to battle them. "When they converged to the streets, the army intervened and both of them started to fight. After the first day of fight, military tanks rolled in and the armed men took to the building's rooftops and used anti-aircraft weapons to target the war jet prompting the air forces to respond. "
"The clashes have intensified from both sides; each of them pitted against the other," the war-weary woman said, adding that as the fighting grew more ferocious "the glassware at home started to get smashed and I told my husband that I don't want to stay in Aleppo and that I want to go to Damascus."
"I called my sister and asked her where was she staying at and she told me that she was staying at a school. I took the address and headed to Damascus and after a week here I heard that my house was leveled to the ground," she said while her small kids sat around her.
Her sister, a secondary school principle and a mother of six who asked to be referred to as Um Mohammad, said she had fled her home in Midan area in Aleppo city after the area had witnessed a thick presence of snipers "so it has become hard for us to dwell there."
"I am also a member of al-Baath party which has caused me a lot of troubles and that is why we have left our homes," she said.
The battles in Aleppo city began in July 2012 and escalated late that month when the conflict befallen the city itself after being confined to its sprawling countryside adjacent to the Turkish borders.
Aleppo and Damascus had been largely speared the bitterness of the deadly conflict that engulfed most of the country's areas since March 2011 and killed more than 70,000 people. Both cities had even seen rallies in the tens of thousands in support of administration of President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
But the rebels, while growing more determent to bring down the regime, decided to bring the battle to the two key cities in the hope to hasten the downfall of the regime.
The rebels have even become more resourceful and powerful after radical jihadists joined their ranks, unleashing attacks against army outposts and airbases and even taking control over some areas in Aleppo and elsewhere in the conflict-ravaged country.
Aside from the military sites, most of Aleppo's factories have even gotten ripped off or set alight, which has brought all businesses in the city to a halt. Moreover, most of the shops at the city's ancient covered marketplace had been burned down with each party blaming the other for the scenes of destruction across the city.
The most recent battle has been raging on at the vicinity of the international airport of Aleppo and the adjacent al-Nairab airbase, which the rebels have been trying to storm, since last month.
Syria's pro-government media said on daily bases that the army is doing its utmost to protect the airport area from the armed rebels.
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