A FIERCE midday sun bore down on Hamida as she turned her weathered face skyward and recalled the sound of the planes she believed heralded death and destruction.
“There were so many explosions and the aircraft seemed to be above us all day and night,” she said, cradling a terrified child in her lap.
Hamida, a sturdy grandmother clad in a black abaya, huddled in the back of a pick-up truck with her family.
They had fled Aleppo yesterday morning and were now on its outskirts.
“We left everything behind except our souls and the clothes on our backs,” she said. “There was no time, no time. No one knows exactly what Bashar will do to Aleppo and that is what is so frightening.”
What Hamida and her family left behind is a battle everyone in Syria knows will be pivotal in the 16-month uprising against president Bashar al-Assad.
The fighting here in Syria’s most populous city follows a July 18th bombing in the capital, Damascus, that killed four crucial figures within Assad’s circle, including his defence minister, intelligence chief and powerful brother-in-law.
The regime has vowed it will regain control of Aleppo, where rebels control several districts, and people here fear they will attempt to do so whatever the cost.
Assad has committed massive military resources to the battle for this ancient city, after losing grip of much of its hinterland and a number of border crossings with Turkey and Iraq.
Anti-regime activists say 26 people were killed in the city on Saturday, as fighting raged between rebels and forces loyal to Assad.
Hamida and her family had stopped off in a small village where the Syrian rebels appeared to be in control. Members of one rebel brigade distributed fresh bread to locals who scrambled for the flat, floury rounds.
“We haven’t had any bread for a week,” said Mohammed al-Asmeh, who added that he had moved here from the city centre three months ago after his house was burned by regime forces.
“People are getting very desperate. All we want is for Bashar to just go and leave us alone.”
Another man interjected: “Bashar knows nothing but to kill, kill, kill – even his own people. This is a fight for our rights. We want our freedom.”
This road to the outskirts of Aleppo passes through a string of dusty hamlets interspersed with rolling fields of olive trees.
Most of the villages appeared to be in rebel hands. The three-starred green, white and black flag adopted by the Syrian opposition could be seen painted on walls and fluttering from homes.
Hassan Abdelhamid, a labourer turned fighter with a brigade belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army, said opposition forces had wrested control of his village three months ago. “We have started working together,” he said, referring to the FSA’s previous lack of co-ordination. “And that has made a big difference.”
There were few signs of fighting in Abdelhamid’s village but a short distance away, in a town named Teldaman, the blood-drenched walls and floors of a local police station told their own story.
“We fought the shabiha [pro-Assad militia] here,” said Ali, a stonemason turned FSA volunteer. “We drove them out 10 days ago. Forty people died in the battle. When we entered this building afterwards we found Hizbullah flags inside.”
Many people here talk of Hizbullah sending fighters from neighbouring Lebanon to support its long-standing patron, Assad. They also claim Iranian planes have landed in a nearby military airport, loaded with fresh supplies for regime forces.
Teldaman’s other police station, which locals said had been set alight by retreating shabiha, was a burned-out shell. Its floors were littered with charred papers containing the fingerprints and photographs of the town’s residents.
“This is how they kept watch over us,” said Ali. “This is how they controlled us. But those days are now over, thank God.”