Sky News has obtained exclusive pictures of the
civil war in Syria as airstrikes continue to hit the region around Idlib
in the northeast of the country.
People fleeing the war have been camping out near the border with the Turkish village of Guvecci.Sky News crossed the border to witness the latest people trying to flee the escalating conflict inside the country.
Fresh fighting involving Islamic State, Russian bombers and the Syrian army are ensuring that these desperate people are terrified as well.
They mass on the Turkish border in their thousands, waiting for smugglers to take them across. They shelter beneath trees or huddle in makeshift camps across a swathe of northern Syria.
The border is now closed and some who do make the journey over are arrested and deported by the Turkish border police in an apparent policy U-turn. However, many thousands do make it through and escape north.
The refugees who spoke to Sky News said that they knew the journey across had become more dangerous and expensive but that they had no choice. It was far worse for them at home, where staying has become impossible.
An old lady, already exhausted, took a break on a wall. She is travelling with what remains of her family; she hasn't seen her two sons in two years.
As a stream of refugees passed by, she told Sky News: "They destroyed our house, we have been displaced for three years. We have no place to live. What can we do?"
The conditions in the camps are very poor and they get worse by the day as the winter weather draws in.
There are thousands of people in just one small area opposite the Turkish town of Guvecci. If they are not forced to shelter in tents, they find places to stay with people in nearby towns. All the communities here are full to bursting.
The sheer volume of new refugees will doubtless shock the international community. The roads to the border are chock-a-block with traffic ferrying refugees to the north, and they are from all over the country. Cities are literally emptying.
"I'm from Dier ez Zor. The Russians destroyed our house and Islamic State prevented us from escaping through the fields. I have no idea where we will go," said a man escaping with his wife, three children, his sister, his mother and father.
His story is typical of so many.
In Turkey itself, Syrians now mingle with the local communities in towns and cities on the borders as they prepare to continue their journey.
Some of these towns have doubled in size in the last few years and local officials told us they simply have no idea how many Syrians have passed through, but it is in the millions.
The reason for the new exodus of people is easily explained. The war in Syria has dramatically intensified.
This is now an absolutely chaotic battlefield and it is huge. There is fighting and fighters in large numbers across Syria. Thousands engaged in deadly battles for a myriad of causes including simple survival.
From the air, Russian jets bomb positions and targets in non-IS areas. Their strategy seems to be more about saving Bashar al Assad than destroying Islamic State.
Entire towns are now deserted - wastelands of bombed-out destruction.
In one large town, visited by Sky News, barely a building was still standing. Nobody could survive this and nobody would risk staying.
While the international community holds talks on Syria and on the refugee crisis, more people die and thousands more flee in search of sanctuary, every day and every night.