It was among the most intense rounds in four years of rebel shelling that officials say has killed 11,000 civilians. Kidnapping threats from extremist factions, as well as government airstrikes, have made insurgent-held areas too dangerous to venture into. Much of the old market, whose narrow passageways became a hide-out for rebels, lies burned and bombed. “I saw my father dying from the balcony,” said his son Adel, 13, crying and trembling. At one crossing point, Syrian soldiers, and a few Russians, waited at a checkpoint decorated with posters of Mr. Assad.

Source: New York Times November 05, 2016 01:18 UTC