Syria launches attack on Aleppo
(CBS News) KHALED, Lebanon - The civil war in Syria has moved into the country's largest city. Government forces are staging a full-scale attack on rebel fighters in Aleppo, the nation's commercial heart and a strategic prize for both sides.
The opposition fighters in Aleppo are, for the most part, lightly armed and no match for the government's heavy artillery or helicopter gunships.
Activist video shows once again terrified civilians who are dying in the crossfire.
Video: Battle for Syria's biggest city intensifies
Thousands of residents saw this battle coming and fled days ago into the countryside or towards swelling refugee camps in Turkey.
Across the region, whole families are now being stranded by the violence in tents, abandoned buildings, or, in this case, forced to camp in a Lebanese school empty for the summer vacation.
Among those stranded is Khaled, nine-years-old. His mother Samira said they've left their home behind, but not the grisly memories. "We saw people killed by shelling," she said, "and also tortured to death."
In all, according to the United Nations, over 120,000 refugees have spilled out of Syria in every direction, to Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
In northern Lebanon, just a shallow valley away, is Syria along with Syrian troops hiding among the trees. Occasionally they take pot shots into the Lebanese town of Wadi Khaled.
Abu Adul, a Syrian refugee, is relieved to have got his family shelter a safe distance away, but he's still worried. His boys dream of going back to join the Syrian rebel fighters.
Asked how he would stop them from leaving, he said, "We must do our best to stop them. Because if they go, they are going to die."
