BAB AL SALAMA, REUTER, Feb 6, 2016 – Russian and Syrian government forces on Saturday intensified an assault on rebel-held areas around the Syrian city of Aleppo that has prompted tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border to seek refuge.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, which has already taken in 2.5 million Syrians, said up to 55,000 were now fleeing to the frontier.
CAMPS ON SYRIAN SIDE
Cavusoglu said the border was open.
The local governor on the Turkish side of the border, Suleyman Tapsiz, said around 35,000 Syrians had reached Oncupinar in the space of 48 hours.
A Turkish aid official said the refugees on the Syrian side were safe and being given food.
One camp was teeming with women and small children, some of whom carried bottles of water or played in the mud. Some of the tents were ripped and dirty while others, provided by a Turkish aid organization, appeared new.
One refugee, Muhammed Idris, said he had fled from the nearby Syrian town of Azaz, counting on the open-door policy touted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
“THOUSANDS WAITING”
Sitting in his car with his four children just inside Turkey, Ahmet Sadul, 43, was hoping to get back into Syria to look for relatives from Azaz.
“Now there are thousands of people from Azaz all waiting on the other side. They escaped from the Russians. I want to go and get my relatives. They are bombing Syrians all the time.”
“Many people have left Aleppo. But still there are many civilians there. If Russia is successful, we are all dead.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collates witness reports, said fighting continued in areas north of Aleppo, and that government and allied forces were also attacking villages to the east of the city and to the southwest, around the main highway to Damascus.