Family Tweets a Farewell From Aleppo As Airstrikes Continue

“Under heavy bombardments now, can’t be alive anymore,” a Syrian woman tweeted Sunday. The woman, along with her 7-year-old daughter Bana, had attracted global attention in recent months for using the social media platform to document the daily struggles of a family living in Aleppo.

The woman, referred to only as Fatemah out of concern for her safety, told NBC News that she tweeted the farewell as the town came under increasingly heavy bombardment Sunday.

“When we die, keep talking for 200,000 still inside. BYE,” read the rest of her goodbye dispatch. Fatemah followed up later Sunday — she and her family had survived the attacks, but their home was destroyed, she said.

She said Sunday was “the hardest day” so far in Aleppo, where the United Nations estimates nearly a million Syrians are living under siege. After a short-lived cease-fire in September, President Bashar al-Assad’s government stepped up its ground and air campaigns and since has hit hospitals, destroyed infrastructure and caused hundreds of civilian casualties.

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