The first U.S. service member killed in Syria in the fight against ISIS was returned to the United States on Sunday evening in a dignified transfer at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. 
 
 Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, 42, died near the city of Ayn Issa in northern Syria on Thursday after being injured in an improvised explosive device blast, military officials said. 
 
 Steve Ruark/AP Photo 
 
 When a service member is killed abroad, his or her remains are returned to the U.S at Dover Air Force Base. On arrival, there is a dignified transfer, in which an honor guard from the member's service branch carries a flag-draped container with the remains from a transport aircraft to a vehicle. The remains are taken to a mortuary, where they are turned over to the family for burial. 
 
 "I am deeply saddened by the news on this Thanksgiving Day that one of our brave service members has been killed in Syria while protecting us from the evil of ISIL," Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement on Thursday, referring to ISIS by another acronym. 
 
 "It is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face around the world to keep us safe. Please keep this service member's family, friends and teammates in your thoughts and prayers, and this Thanksgiving I hope you will join me in expressing thanks to all of our dedicated troops who selflessly protect us every day," Carter added. 
 
 Steve Ruark/AP Photo 
 
 Dayton was assigned to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit Two, which is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a Navy press release said. Hundreds of people with American flags lined a street in Virginia Beach as his family left for Dover Air Force Base on Sunday morning to meet the plane carrying his body. 
 
 Dayton, who joined the Navy in 1993, received 19 awards, including the Bronze Star. He was an enlisted explosive ordnance disposal warfare specialist and an enlisted surface warfare specialist, military officials said. 
 
 In October 2015, President Barack Obama directed the Pentagon to insert special operations forces in Syria to advise and assist the Syrian opposition in its battle against ISIS militants. At any time, up to 300 U.S. service members could be operating in Syria, where they are advising and assisting Syrian Kurdish and Arab rebel forces fighting ISIS. 
 
 Dayton's death follows the death of a U.S. service member in Iraq last month; he was killed by a roadside bomb north of Mosul, where he was serving as an adviser to Iraqi troops. 
 
 ABC News' Paul Blake, Luis Martinez and Justin Fishel contributed to this report. ||||| But buttressed by Russian air power, Iranian expertise and recruits that include Iran-trained Iraqi and Afghan militias and fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the Assad government has reversed the tide, steadily regaining ground it lost earlier in the war. 
 
 “The Russian and Iranian intervention has completely changed the dynamic for Assad,” said Robert S. Ford, a former American ambassador to Syria and now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. 
 
 “Look at the fighting in Aleppo,” he added. “There are at least as many Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi-Iranian militia fighters as there are soldiers born in Syria, so the war of attrition that was going against Assad is no longer doing that because of Iranian manpower.” 
 
 But the darker side is what kind of country would be left. “So Assad stays there and the Russians and Iranians prevail, but they govern over a half-dead corpse, and Syria is just this gaping wound that stretches as far as the eye can see,” Mr. Ford said. 
 
 Mr. Assad would also be beholden to his two sponsors, Russia and Iran, reviled by many of his own citizens in the Sunni-majority country and rejected by some of the main Sunni powers in the Middle East. That could mean he would face efforts from Iran to solidify its regional reach by expanding Shiite influence in Syria and demanding a role in conquered areas such as Aleppo, perhaps even assigning Iranian-backed Shiite militias there, some experts said. 
 
 Still, he is ascendant now, in a limited fashion. The rebels lack consistent military aid — particularly with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump expressing doubts about the current level of American support for them — and they are divided among a bewildering array of groups, including Qaeda aspirants and Kurdish separatists. They have witnessed a decline not only in fighters but in community support, always a critical factor for guerrilla movements. 
 
 When Russia entered the Syria conflict last year, President Obama’s security team predicted that it would become trapped in a quagmire. Almost the opposite has happened: Russia now looks strong and, along with Iran, has given the Syrian government the resources it needed to make military headway. ||||| A Syrian soldier walks past destroyed buildings in eastern Aleppo’s Baadeen district Monday, a day after government forces took control of the area from rebels. Residents who remain in the still-blockaded parts of the city’s east face starvation. (George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 With its stockpile of food dwindling rapidly and government forces tightening their stranglehold on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, the Khattab family dreads what could come next. The brutal blockade has brought the family’s side of the city close to starvation, while punishing airstrikes have turned trips to local markets into life-or-death excursions. 
 
 Over the weekend, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces made major advances against the remaining rebel enclaves, but even as thousands of residents flee, many others are refusing to leave, fearing capture. 
 
 Those who are staying have very little left after years of war and months of a near-total blockade. 
 
 “We’re only eating two small meals a day now, and it’s just rice and cracked wheat,” said Moataz Khattab, 26, who lives with nine family members. “We eat together, what we can, but we are losing so much weight. We’re running out of supplies, and now we talk about starving to death.” 
 
 Last week, Jan Egeland, a senior U.N. humanitarian adviser, warned of impending starvation if efforts to bring in aid continue to falter. 
 
 Syrian soldiers inspect damage in a street in eastern Aleppo's Bustan al-Basha neighborhood Monday. Government forces captured six rebel-held districts in the city’s east over the weekend, forcing thousands of residents to flee. (George Ourfalian/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 [In under siege Aleppo, there is no normal life] 
 
 Since Sunday, rebel defenses in Aleppo — divided since 2012 between rebels in the east and government-held districts in the west — have started unraveling. Government forces have seized more than a third of the east, prompting more than 16,000 people to leave the area, according to Stephen O’Brien, the U.N. humanitarian chief. 
 
 What comes next could be a final deadly assault or an even tighter siege to starve the remaining rebels into submission. For the past four months, Assad’s forces have blockaded more than 200,000 people in the east, nearly half of them children, according to U.N. officials. 
 
 Those who remain trapped there must contend with frigid winter temperatures and lack of access to fresh supplies of food and other essentials, such as drinking water, fuel and medicine. 
 
 “Every day, my children ask me for food that is not available. They want fruit. They want chicken. They’re hungry,” said Ali al-Halabi, a 36-year-old father of three who lives in the area. 
 
 He has also reduced his family’s meals from three per day to two, and he’s begun contemplating eating just once daily himself. The family’s food stockpile is almost exhausted, he said. 
 
 Aleppo, the nation’s commercial hub and its largest city, was once a symbol of the rebellion against Assad. Half of its districts fell quickly to the rebels in 2012, and it was expected to become the staging ground for the Syrian leader’s eventual overthrow. 
 
 That overthrow never came, however, and nearly 400,000 people were killed in the civil war that saw Russia, Iran and other Syrian allies step in to support the government and turn the tide of the war. 
 
 Now eastern Aleppo is a symbol of desperation. Airstrikes have leveled hospitals, homes and much of the infrastructure, with people surviving on vegetables grown in backyard plots. 
 
 Its residents know what horrors still await them, having watched rebel-controlled towns and neighborhoods across the country succumb to the government’s harshly efficient starvation sieges. 
 
 U.N. officials and aid workers say scores of Syrians have died under these blockades from the effects of malnutrition. 
 
 Dozens just in the town of Madaya, west of Damascus, died when the food ran out. The world was shocked earlier this year by a flurry of images from Madaya that showed residents looking deathly ill, some so thin they resembled walking skeletons. 
 
 Khattab, who said he has lost 15 pounds just in the past few weeks, actually thinks he and his family members are fairly lucky, considering the situation. They stockpiled a relatively large amount of food, although they have now whittled down their supplies to alarmingly low levels. 
 
 The family’s less fortunate neighbors have run out of food, and one boy in Khattab’s district is close to death, he said. “He has become a skeleton,” Khattab said. “Neighbors donated food to him, but it won’t last long.” 
 
 Khattab’s mother, 52-year-old Hend, tries to come up with creative ways of cooking the family’s remaining supplies of cracked wheat and rice. But the declining portion sizes — and lack of nutrients — are taking a toll, especially on younger family members. 
 
 Khattab is particularly concerned for his 10-year-old brother, Mohammed. “He’s so young, and he’s not getting the foods he needs to be healthy,” he said. “It’s dangerous for him.” 
 
 For Khattab, it is becoming hard just to make it out the door each day to pursue his work as a freelance photographer chronicling the devastating aftermaths of countless airstrikes. 
 
 “You just stay at home, rest, and that’s it,” he said. “You don’t have energy.” 
 
 It is a condition afflicting many of the young men who keep eastern Aleppo running. Raed al-Saleh, the head of the Syria Civil Defense Force or “White Helmets,” said his team of volunteers, who play a vital role in retrieving people from the wreckage of buildings bombed by government forces, show signs of worsening fatigue from the lack of food. 
 
 The lack of energy makes their lifesaving work much harder, said Abu Laith, 26, a White Helmet rescuer who said he is subsisting on rice. 
 
 “These are the worst days of the war,” he said. “We’re exhausted. We’re so exhausted.” 
 
 Louisa Loveluck in Beirut and Heba Habib in Stockholm contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Assad’s forces seize a third of rebel held Aleppo 
 
 The battle for Aleppo explained 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world 
 
 Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news ||||| (CNN) Up to 16,000 people have fled the violence in Syria's war-ravaged eastern Aleppo, with food stocks "practically finished" and every hospital bombed beyond use, the UN's humanitarian chief said Tuesday. 
 
 But nearly 200,000 people are believed to be still in eastern Aleppo, as the Syrian regime pounds it with airstrikes and troops storm through it in an operation to retake the enclave after more than four years of rebel control. 
 
 "I am extremely concerned about the fate of civilians as a result of the deeply alarming and chilling situation unfolding in Aleppo city," UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said in a statement. 
 
 "Initial reports indicate that up to 16,000 people have been displaced, many into uncertain and precarious situations. It is likely that thousands more will have no choice but to flee should fighting continue to spread and intensify over the coming days." 
 
 Government forces and armed paramilitary groups loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began a renewed push toward eastern Aleppo on November 15, as regime warplanes continued to pound the area to flush out rebels and civilians. 
 
 They have made rapid territorial gains since entering eastern Aleppo on the ground Saturday , taking a huge portion of the northeast. Russian media on Monday cited its defense ministry, saying 40% of the east was now in regime hands, however CNN sources put the figure at just over 20%. Their gains drive a wedge through the zone and splits it into two sections. 
 
 "There are no modes of transportation and no vehicles in the streets, so civilians are fleeing and walking close to 8 or 9 kilometers on foot, carrying what they can and their children, and fleeing towards the western parts of Aleppo," an activist told CNN. 
 
 Rescuers debilitated 
 
 Hospitals have been obliterated in months of bombing and by the start of this week there wasn't a single one in operation, O'Brien and medical organizations have said. 
 
 Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered mobile field hospitals be sent to Aleppo to provide immediate medical assistance to residents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state-run Sputnik news network on Tuesday. 
 
 Russia has been the Syrian regime's closest and most powerful ally, and its support has been widely blamed for the destruction of hospitals and schools across the country in aerial bombardments. 
 
 Russia will send a multipurpose hospital to serve 100 patients, which includes a children's ward, as well as a mobile field hospital for 50 patients, which can also provide ambulatory treatment for some 200 people per day, Peskov said. 
 
 A Syrian girl after airstrikes hit the al-Shear neighborhood in Aleppo on Monday. 
 
 More than 500 people were killed between Saturday and Monday in the latest assaults, the self-styled Syria Civil Defense, a volunteer rescue group also known as the White Helmets, told CNN. 
 
 An additional 25 were killed overnight as the regime dropped parachute bombs in the Bab al-Nayreb neighborhood, an activist from the Aleppo Media Center said, adding dozens more had been injured. 
 
 Residents in several other areas under heavy bombardment Tuesday told CNN that the ambulances and rescuers that usually come after the strikes were nowhere to be seen. 
 
 "Unfortunately, we can't do our duty due to the lack of fuel," White Helmets member Bebars Meshaal told CNN. 
 
 Among those affected in the days of strikes is 7-year-old Bana Alabed, who has captured international attention with her tweets about daily life in eastern Aleppo. On Tuesday she shared a picture of her damaged home, posting that she felt "sad but happy to be alive," following a flurry of tweets in recent days recording heavy bombardment on her house. 
 
 This is our house, My beloved dolls died in the bombing of our house. I am very sad but happy to be alive.- Bana pic.twitter.com/9i0xxJrQtD — Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) November 29, 2016 
 
 Before the evacuations in recent days, UNICEF said there were around 100,000 children in eastern Aleppo. 
 
 'Restore basic humanity' 
 
 Eastern Aleppo has become the epicenter of Syria's civil war, much of it decimated in regime strikes backed by Russian air power. 
 
 Assad has vowed to take the whole of Aleppo, which has for years been divided between the largely regime-held west and rebel-held east. 
 
 The government has besieged the east a number of times, cutting off both the rebels and civilians from the outside world, leaving communities on the brink of starvation -- without sufficient food, clean water, fuel and medical supplies. 
 
 A pro-government soldier looks over the city of Aleppo on Monday. 
 
 The last UN rations in Aleppo were distributed on November 13, and UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland warned last week that people in the area were on the brink of starvation. 
 
 "I ask all parties to the conflict to restore basic humanity in Syria," the UN's O'Brien said, calling for an end to the siege and for the safe passage of aid deliveries into the area. 
 
 Beginning of the end? 
 
 Taking all of Aleppo would mark a turning point in the Syrian war -- the city is the last urban rebel stronghold in the country. Seizing it would put the regime back in control of all four major cities. 
 
 Some observers have suggested it would be the beginning of the end of the uprising that began in 2011. 
 
 A solution to the war, which has drawn in both Russia and the US, has evaded the international community for years. Russia has used its veto power in the UN Security Council several times to shoot down proposed resolutions on the conflict. 
 
 French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault called on the Security Council to immediately meet and examine the situation. 
 
 "More than ever, there is an urgent need for a cessation of hostilities and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance," Ayrault said in a statement, adding he would meet with the head of Aleppo's district councils, Brita Hagi Hasan, on Wednesday in Paris. 
 
 A man helps evacuate a wounded victim after airstrikes in al-Shear, Aleppo, on Monday. 
 
 O'Brien also called for a political solution, saying that "the people of Syria have suffered far too much and for far too long." 
 
 "More than anything, I hope a path towards a political solution can be found soon so that we can give some semblance of hope to the many millions of Syrian families who tonight are hungry, sick, and fearing for their lives," he said. ||||| The Last Hospital In Eastern Aleppo Is No More 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Union of Medical and Relief Organizations Courtesy of Union of Medical and Relief Organizations 
 
 When the last remaining hospital in besieged eastern Aleppo crumbled under a wave of artillery strikes on Nov. 18, one of the casualties was 25-year-old nurse Kefah. 
 
 Middle East Chicago Orthopedic Surgeon Recalls Volunteer Work In War-Torn Syria Chicago Orthopedic Surgeon Recalls Volunteer Work In War-Torn Syria Listen · 3:51 3:51 
 
 "The last time he called me was one night before he was killed," says Dr. A.M. — an intensive care specialist based in Detroit who, for the past four years, has been providing training and support via Skype and WhatsApp to medical staff in Aleppo. He asked that we only use his initials because the Syrian government has persecuted doctors — and their families — for treating rebels. 
 
 "He was such a good kid," he says. "Now Kefah is gone. You know, he has a 9-day-old baby. And his wife, she is very badly injured. His father, a security guard at one of the hospitals, just recently he lost his other son." 
 
 A few days before he died, Kefah wrote — as an encouraging mantra — an Arabic folk saying on a wall of his hospital: "Frivolously you try, but a revolutionary does not die." 
 
 Now that wall is rubble. 
 
 The fall of Omar Bin Abdul Aziz — the last standing hospital in eastern Aleppo — means as many as 300,000 civilians in the area, living under a siege imposed by the regime of President Bashar Assad, have nowhere to seek treatment for injuries or illness. 
 
 Three other hospitals were put out of service that day as Aleppo was targeted by aerial bombardment. The attacks came as Russia and the Assad regime have continued a devastating military offensive on eastern Aleppo and other rebel-held areas that began when a shaky cease-fire ended on Nov. 15. 
 
 Warplanes have been specifically targeting hospitals in Aleppo for years, according to humanitarian groups. Since March 2011, the international aid group UOSSM — also known as the Union of Medical Care and Relief — has documented 545 attacks on 250 medical facilities throughout Syria. 
 
 Most facilities have moved underground, to basement clinics, where they are safer from aerial bombings — but the severity of the recent attacks, and the potency of the explosives used, were able to take out even these fortified facilities. 
 
 UOSSM and other aid groups have been waiting outside Aleppo's borders with trucks full of supplies and medical aid, but the groups say that Assad's forces are blocking all access. 
 
 "There is no way we can get any medical aid to them, or even evacuate patients to get them medical care," says Dr. Khaula Sawah, CEO of UOSSM USA. "There's nothing we can do until there's a political resolution." 
 
 Dr. M. says he now has no way to help his friends in Aleppo — his medical advice is useless because the doctors and nurses there have no way to implement it. 
 
 "For patients on life support, there's not enough oxygen tanks — there's not even enough diesel to run electricity and oxygen tanks," he says. 
 
 "I don't know what is going to happen," he adds. "I am afraid this is the end of the story for Aleppo." 
 
 His last phone call with the medical staff displaced by the recent airstrikes — on Wednesday — was interrupted by yet another bombing. 
 
 "When I talk to them now, it is like a sick joke," Dr. M. says. "I ask, 'How are you?' and they say, 'I am still alive.' They feel that they are just waiting for their time to come." 
 
 Middle East What Will Trump's Presidency Mean To Besieged City Of Aleppo? What Will Trump's Presidency Mean To Besieged City Of Aleppo? Listen · 3:43 3:43 
 
 One doctor in Aleppo that I've been in touch with sent me a voice message through WhatsApp, saying he was sorry he hadn't been able to call. "We are facing difficult circumstances due to the shelling and the huge number of injuries," he said. 
 
 Trauma surgeon Abdul Aziz says the situation has left him "heartbroken." After working in Aleppo for several years, Aziz went to Harvard three months ago to research solutions to the medical crisis in Syria. 
 
 "Now, to be honest, I'm feeling guilty," he says. When he was working in Aleppo, "There was no way to sleep — if you sleep, people die. We were always exhausted. Still, I'd prefer to be there rather than here — at least I could stay with my people." 
 
 Aziz can't go back until the siege is broken. From abroad, he says, there is "nothing to do other than shout to the international community — 'please do something.' " 
 
 "Why are people silent? This silence should not be," Aziz continues. "If this was happening in London, Paris, Berlin or any city in the U.S., would the world be silent? This is a black spot in the history of the world." 
 
 Those left in Syria "just have to keep going," says Ahmad, another doctor. He asked that we only use his first name out of fear that the government would come after his family members still in Aleppo. The Pittsburgh-based doctor, who left Syria before the conflict began to pursue a medical degree in the U.S., has been coordinating telephone support to Syrian doctors and clinicians through the Syrian American Medical Association. 
 
 Over the past few days, Ahmad has been brainstorming with a couple of surgeons and a few nurses left in Aleppo about how — given the lack of supplies and facilities — they can still try to provide care for the remaining residents. 
 
 Survivors are digging through the rubble to salvage any medical equipment that survived the airstrike on Omar Bin Abdul Aziz hospital, Ahmad says. 
 
 "That's the plan for now — moving whatever is left, from beds to oxygen tanks, to another basement and start again," he says — and if that new location gets bombed, "you move to another place — that is the attitude of the people there." ||||| Image copyright Abdulkafi Image caption Abdulkafi with his daughter Lamar 
 
 A pause by Russia in carrying out air strikes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo has brought a brief respite for civilians and fighters under siege in the Syrian city. 
 
 At least 250,000 people have been trapped there almost continuously since pro-government forces encircled the area in July. Conditions are said to be appalling, with destruction on a massive scale. 
 
 Readers told us they wanted to know why people were still living there, so we put the question to residents through Facebook and WhatsApp. 
 
 Who lives in Aleppo? 
 
 Formerly Syria's economic hub, Aleppo had an estimated pre-war population of about two million. About one million people are now living in the west, in comparative safety. 
 
 Those trapped in the east are living in appalling conditions. The UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien recently described the area as "the apex of horror". 
 
 Food and fuel are running out and basic infrastructure and health care have been obliterated. 
 
 The rebels have retaliated by shelling the west - resulting in the deaths of civilians there - but this is on a smaller scale. 
 
 Why haven't people fled east Aleppo? 
 
 Image copyright Mohammed 
 
 The main reason why people have not left is that they have become trapped, they told us. 
 
 "Some people left before the siege. Now no-one can leave," says Mohammed, a 31-year-old phonetics teacher at the university in Aleppo. 
 
 Every second you can be targeted by shelling or by snipers" Dr Ossama, East Aleppo 
 
 People have to be careful not to use up their phone batteries because there are only a few hours of electricity each day. However, they are still able to get messages to the outside world. 
 
 Dr Ossama, 32, is one of only 30 doctors left treating the 250,000 population of east Aleppo. He describes the dire situation: 
 
 "The city is under siege completely. 
 
 "No food, no electricity, no pure water, no roads out of Aleppo. The general situation is very dangerous. Every second you can be targeted by shelling or by snipers." 
 
 Image copyright Dr Ossama Image caption Dr Ossama is one of the last medics left in eastern Aleppo 
 
 Fatemah, 26, who is a teacher, says she never expected the siege to happen. 
 
 "All my family got out three years ago and went to Egypt and Turkey. I stayed here because I wanted to complete my studies in law at the University of Aleppo. 
 
 "We couldn't imagine we'd be under siege. We didn't think that the regime would do that. Before the siege, there was food and medicine and we had got used to the bombing. The bombing is more dangerous now." 
 
 The Syrian government and its Russian allies have periodically opened "humanitarian corridors" for civilians to leave through. There is a lot of scepticism from residents of east Aleppo over how safe these routes actually are. 
 
 "The regime lied about making humanitarian corridors," says Abdulkafi, who teaches English at the university. 
 
 Image copyright AFP/Getty Images 
 
 "If you were with your family, and a robber came and killed your son and daughter and then, after 10 days, he says, 'Come and be a guest in my house', would you trust him? 
 
 "[President] Assad and the Russians kill civilians and now they say, 'Come on in'. How can we do that? We prefer to eat the leaves from the trees than go back." 
 
 A very important reason people are staying here is that they are very poor" Fatemah, East Aleppo 
 
 Abdulkafi has lived in Aleppo for three years. Before the uprising, he was a lecturer in a different town. He attended the demonstrations against President Assad. 
 
 "I was accused and ran away to Aleppo. Assad's regime considers us all terrorists. We are going to die defending ourselves. I am not a fighter but I will fight to the death." 
 
 Some in east Aleppo point out that fleeing their homes and becoming refugees would be a massive undertaking, even if they weren't trapped. 
 
 "A very important reason people are staying here is that they are very poor," says Fatemah. 
 
 "They have no money to rent a house somewhere else or to buy food, or even have the money to leave Syria for Turkey or another country." 
 
 'This is my land' 
 
 Image copyright YouTube 
 
 Everyone we spoke to also told us that they would continue to refuse to leave Aleppo because it was their home. 
 
 "Aleppo is my life and my country. How could I leave it?" asks Fatemah. 
 
 My wife is seven months pregnant and it is very dangerous, especially now we are under siege" Mohammed, East Aleppo 
 
 "The people here are civilians. They are not fighters - they just want freedom from the regime." 
 
 Mohammed adds: "This is our land and it belongs to us. Assad wants us to be kicked out of our house and is trying to displace us. People want to keep their homes. It is as clear as glass. 
 
 "My wife is seven months pregnant and it is very dangerous, especially now we are under siege. 
 
 "She is really scared and she worries that every day is the last of our lives. Her only wish is to live to see our newborn baby." 
 
 Image copyright Ismail Image caption Ismail says many would prefer to die in Aleppo than to leave 
 
 Ismail is a volunteer for the White Helmets, who rescue people from sites which have been bombed. He tells us he will never leave. 
 
 "I am staying because it is my land and my city. It's my home. 
 
 "We have nothing to eat. We will run out of bread and fuel in a month. Our best hope is that the siege is broken. But we are not asking for bread or food we want freedom and social justice." 
 
 "Many people would prefer to die in Aleppo than to leave it," says Dr Ossama. 
 
 "If we go out of Aleppo we will lose our home and our home is our life… and the regime and the Russians would win." 
 
 Image copyright Abdulkafi Image caption Abdulkafi with his class 
 
 We interviewed Abdulkafi while he was teaching English to children. He asked Hamad, a boy in his class if he would leave. 
 
 "No, of course I will not leave," Hamad replied. "I have lived here and I will stay. This is my land." 
 
 Like the other people we spoke to, Abdulkafi, who has an eight-month-old daughter, will stay in Aleppo, whatever happens. 
 
 "Danger is everywhere - but freedom is not everywhere. 
 
 "People stayed here because we first asked for freedom. We can't leave. 
 
 "The blood of the children who died would not forgive us. The people suffering now would not forgive us. To be free is more precious than anything on earth."
– Bashar al-Assad's government forces in Syria are poised to reclaim Aleppo, and two weeks of attacks have displaced thousands of residents. Here's a look at developments: The big picture: Aleppo would give Assad control of Syria's five biggest cities, meaning it's likely he's going to survive the years-long rebel uprising, observes an analysis at the New York Times. But he shouldn't get too excited: Rebels will decamp to the countryside, and "he would rule over an economic wasteland hampered by a low-level insurgency with no end in sight." Full analysis here. The UN estimates that 16,000 people have been uprooted in the latest violence, and officials expect the exodus to get worse, reports CNN. Whether they flee or stay, residents face one common problem: a distinct threat of starvation. The Washington Post has a closer look. It's the eastern half of Aleppo that's under siege, and an estimated 250,000 people were still living there prior to this latest fighting. Why? They feel trapped. See the BBC. Earlier this month, eastern Aleppo still had one hospital standing, but airstrikes have since wiped it out. See NPR. Syria is going to be a major foreign policy issue for President-elect Trump, and an analysis at Foreign Affairs lays out a potential strategy for him. Key is putting pressure on Moscow and Tehran. Read it here. The US just lost its first service member in the fight against ISIS in Syria; ABC News has details. A 7-year-old's plight has caught the world's attention.