Another wave of Syrian refugees have started their hazardous journey to safety as forces loyal to President al-Assad moved in on Aleppo last Friday, backed by Russian warplanes, Iranian ground troops and militia fighters. An estimated 70,000 fled the southern Aleppo countryside as a result of an assault moving in on three sides of the shattered rebel-held city. ‘People are scared to death, everyone is on the move,’ said the head of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations, as he returned from the area. ‘People are sleeping in the streets and the fields, but there is nowhere for them to go.’ The Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said there had been ‘massive displacement’ in recent days. An aid worker in southern Aleppo said that several villages stood almost empty. ‘The strong travel on foot, pushing the elderly in wheelbarrows; those left behind face severe medical shortages.’