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900,000 have fled up the M5 in search of safety as Assad tries to regain last rebel stronghold
It was dawn when the Hussein family packed up to leave their home in Saraqeb. The whine of Russian and Syrian government warplanes had got too close for comfort in the last few days, and the thuds of bombs and artillery fire were scaring Odai al-Hussein’s 7-month-old son, Yahya.
Odai and his wife Banan spent two weeks agonising over whether to leave home and take Syria’s M5 highway north, into the unknown. But in the end, the looming violence of Bashar al-Assad’s new campaign against Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country, led them to pack up the car. Hussein’s father cried as he bid farewell to his house. Continue reading...