As Syrian regime closes in on Aleppo, refugees have nowhere to go
GAZIANTEP, Turkey -- After five years of grinding stalemate, Syria's civil war may have reached a turning point. The Assad dictatorship, backed by relentless Russian airstrikes, is close to surrounding Aleppo, an opposition stronghold.
Thousands have fled for their lives, only to be caught in a no-man's land along the border with Turkey.
Another child victim of a war that even adults struggle to understand, a little boy was trapped under a slab of concrete until volunteer rescue workers managed to free him.
CBS News can't independently verify videos that surfaced online, but they appear to show the death and devastation of a brutal offensive by the Syrian regime around the city of Aleppo, backed by Russian airstrikes.
With the help of its ally Iran on the ground, the Syrian regime has almost entirely surrounded Aleppo, and is now less than 20 miles from the Turkish border.
That's where tens of thousands of civilians have fled for their lives, though they still haven't been allowed to cross into safety.
Turkey's absorbed more than 2 million Syrian refugees, and now says it's reached its limit, leaving exhausted people stranded.
Mohamad Eid Hussein Al Ahmad is a spokesman for a Syrian rebel group that's fighting the regime. He says forces have now cut off the rebels' main supply route to Aleppo.
"I can't say for sure how long it will be until Aleppo falls to the regime, or Iran and Russia," he told CBS News. "We'll stand and fight whoever attacks us."
The Syrian rebels, some of them supported by America, rose up nearly five years ago. If the rebels are defeated, Syria will then be divided between ISIS and the regime -- which has indiscriminately bombed its own people.
