'We felt completely lost'

City left reeling after Islamists seize control in surprise offensive

- Ruth Michaelson

It was two in the morning on Saturday when Nasma's husband told her there were uniformed fighters in their neighborhood of western Aleppo - but not from the Syrian army. He stood on their balcony to get a better view, before the men told him to go back inside.

News of the militias' advance in the countryside around Aleppo had spread fast, though Nasma, who requested a pseudonym for her safety, didn't believe change was coming until she saw displaced people arriving from the villages.

"We had lost hope of something like this ever happening so we refused to believe it at first, and the main reason for our disbelief was fear," she said. "It felt like a distant dream."

Then the militants crossed into the city. "At that moment we realised this time was different," Nasma said. A new kind of fear took over, that of the unknown. "We felt completely lost," she said.