Russian Bombing Takes Its Toll On Syrians

The border from Syria to Turkey may be officially open - but in reality, only the injured are able to cross and always in the back of an ambulance.

The wards in Kilis hospital, the nearest major town to the crossing point, aren't overflowing with the injured.

But still there are a lot of people inside. Almost all are recovering from injuries caused by the daily aerial bombardments of their towns and villages by Russian jets.

We were strictly controlled by the Turkish authorities but we managed to persuade our guards to see three wards rather than the one that is now the rule.

In one a little girl lay motionless, her eyes half open but unregistering.

Sarah is six and has not spoken since she was blown up in her house near Aleppo a few days ago.

She is watched over by equally traumatised family members. She will live, but what has happened to her may never leave her.

In other wards we came across more patients all injured in airstrikes. Most were preparing to leave for Turkey before their homes were hit.

Amongst them was Abdulmonim El Ali. He fled Aleppo two years ago because of the fighting there and moved to Azaz on the border with Turkey.

Two days ago he bought a new car and decided to drive to the local sweet shop with his children to buy them a celebratory present.

He heard a huge explosion then a series of smaller ones. He remembers nothing more. They had been caught in a cluster bomb attack aimed at their residential street.

"There is no way anyone can stay in Syria anymore," he told me.

"The Russian bombing makes it impossible to stay. They attack everywhere," he said.

Not all the injured in the hospital are civilians. Two men, separated from the others, were injured in separate attacks on the battlefields where they were fighting.

Certainly the Russian military would argue that as military combatants they are legitimate targets. That of course is true, but they were actually fighting Islamic State.

It's the type of thing that goes to the heart of the argument between Russia and western powers who say the Kremlin is attacking anyone and anywhere in order to prop up the government of President Bashar al Assad.

For its part, Turkey is under pressure to let the refugees in camps on the Syrian side of the border cross over.

It will only happen if there is an emergency is the official line, as the refugees are being delivered aid where they are.

A full-scale assault on Aleppo and fighting spreading west towards the border crossing would probably constitute a new emergency as the tens of thousands there would be exposed and vulnerable.

In truth, the planning is based on the assumption that things are actually going to get worse in Syria, as remarkable as that reads.

While the refugees are a huge concern to the international community, the fate of Aleppo is at least as important.

If it falls and the opposition to Assad is wiped out, then the country will be ruled by two powers: President Assad and Islamic State.

The terror group will doubtless benefit from being the sole voice of opposition in the region representing Sunnis. Perversely they could become more powerful.

Of course Russia would likely target them. But their way of doing things is to attack everything. I was in Chechnya when they did exactly the same.

Then, as now, the resulting bloodshed guarantees huge numbers of civilian casualties and even more refugees.

So the world watches to see what happens in Aleppo.

It's largely destroyed as are great swathes of northern Syria; a landscape of destroyed buildings, people searching for loved ones, and deserted communities, street after street, town after town, mile after mile.