Aleppo has turned into the largest battleground since Syria's conflict erupted in 2011, according to the UN's head. More than 200 people have been killed since the Syrian army launched their latest siege of the city.
Image: Reuters/S. Kitaz
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Hundreds of thousands of civilians remained trapped in Aleppo on Sunday, three days into a Syrian army-led offensive aimed at seizing rebel-held areas of the country's former economic capital.
Monitoring groups reported that at least 49 people had been killed Saturday, including 11 children, with rescuers unable to reach affected areas. At least five people were killed in a government-held neighborhood, Syrian state television reported.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at more than 200 since Thursday, when the Syrian army announced "the start of its operations in the eastern district of Aleppo." Syria's armed forces called on civilians to flee areas near "the headquarters and positions of armed terrorist gangs."
The Syrian government reserves the term "terrorist" for groups fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, including US-backed rebels and the "Islamic State" (IS) militant group.
More than 250,000 civilians are reportedly trapped in eastern Aleppo without water after Russian air raids targeted the area's main water pumping station on Saturday. Rebels retaliated by closing government-held water pumps in Aleppo, effectively cutting off water to 1.5 million people.
The UN urged warring parties to "stop attacks on water infrastructure," considered a war crime under additional protocol of the Geneva Conventions.
Syrian government forces claimed they entered the largely deserted Palestinian refugee camp Handarat, north of Aleppo, on Saturday. But rebels said they wrestled it back from the regimeImage: Getty Images/AFP/G. Ourfalian
'Intense bombardment'
Ahead of Sunday's United Nations Security Council meeting, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called the "most sustained and intense bombardment since the start of the Syrian conflict" in 2011.
However, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the UN that the involvement of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, Lebanon's Shiite militant group, has shown who Damascus' "true friends" are.
"Our belief in victory is even greater now that the Syrian Arab Army is making great strides in its war against terrorism, with the support of the true friends of the Syrian people," he said.
Muallem also reiterated that the US-led coalition airstrike that killed at least 62 Syrian soldiers on September 17 was "intentional," despite Washington's claims that it was an error.
The long trip to Europe from the refugees' perspective
A boy who is soaking wet, volunteers entertaining children, moments of danger and of joy: #RefugeeCameras shows images taken during the journey to Europe. It is the subject of a new exhibition in Hamburg.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Leaving home - for good?
Zakaria received his camera on December 8 in Izmir, Turkey - one of the key hubs for refugees. The Syrian fled from the "Islamic State" terror militia and the government, according to McElvaney's #RefugeeCamera project. Out of safety concerns, Zakaria doesn't name his hometown. In his flight diary, Zakaria writes that only God knows if he will ever be able to return to Syria.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Rough dinghy ride
Zakaria documented his sea journey from Turkey to Chios. He was sitting in the back of his dinghy. At the Hamburg exhibition, which opens this weekend, the refugees' images will be complemented by a selection of shots taken by professionals, who helped to shape the representation of escape routes in the media. They all donated their works in order to support the project.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Perilous arrival
Hamza and Abdulmonem, both from Syria, photographed the perilous landing of their dinghy on a Greek island. There were no volunteers to offer them support. That is exactly what McElvaney had in mind when he launched #RefugeeCameras. So far, he says, the media have offered a "visual blank" in this respect.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Surviving the sea
After the landing, a young boy in wet clothes and life jacket stands on the pebbled beach. The image brings to mind Aylan Kurdi, the small Syrian boy whose lifeless body was washed ashore on a Turkish beach in September. The child in this picture made it to Europe alive. What became of him is not known.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Seven cameras returned
Hamza and Abdulmonem also took this slightly blurred snapshot of the refugee group taking a break. McElvaney handed out 15 disposable cameras in total. Seven of them were returned, one was lost, two were confiscated, two remain in Izmir, where their holders are still stranded. The remaining three cameras are unaccounted for - just like their owners.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Family in focus
Dyab, a math teacher from Syria, tried to capture some of the better moments of his journey to Germany. Pictured here are his wife and his young son, Kerim, who shows us the packet of biscuits he was given in a Macedonian refugee camp. The images reveal Dyab's deep affection for his son, McElvaney says: "He wants to take care of him, even on this arduous trip which he was forced to take."
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
From Iran to Hanau
The story of Saeed, from Iran, is a different one. The young man had to leave the country after converting to Christianity. He could have been arrested or even killed. In order to be accepted as a refugee, he pretended to be Afghan. After his arrival in Germany, he explained his situation to the authorities' satisfaction. He now lives - as an Iranian - in Hanau, Hesse.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
Beyond selfies
Saeed took this picture of a Syrian father and his child on a bus from Athens to Idomeni.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
More than status
In another snapshot taken by Saeed, a volunteer working in a refugee camp somewhere between Croatia and Slovenia entertains a group of children, who try to imitate his tricks.
Image: Kevin McElvaney/ProjectRefugeeCameras
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Diversion near Alawite area?
In a parallel move outside Aleppo, rebels, including the jihadist Jund al-Aqsa group, seized two villages, Maan and al-Kabariya, in northern Hama province, close to the coastal heartland of Assad's minority Alawite community.
In Homs itself, a convoy of 36 aid trucks had reached the rebel-held district of Waer, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Denials of access to food, water and medicines have been used repeatedly by all sides in the nearly six-year war.
More than 300,000 people have been killed and half the population displaced since 2011, when regime forces launched a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters calling for Assad to step down.
