Desperate people of Aleppo fear massacre: White Helmets chief

Life in Aleppo will become impossible within weeks under relentless Russian and Syrian government air strikes, the head of the renowned White Helmets volunteer rescue force said on Tuesday.

But the quarter of a million civilians trapped in the besieged rebel-held east of the Syrian city believe they will be massacred if they flee or if the city falls, Raed Saleh told AFP.

And the White Helmets, members of a civil defense group that has won international acclaim for their work digging the wounded from bombed-out buildings, fear they will be rounded up and shot.

"The civilians there would seize any opportunity to escape, to go wherever they could go," Saleh told AFP in Washington, where he is on a frustrating quest for international support.

"But nothing is available to provide safety and protection for those civilians. We are worried that they are facing massacre or the kidnapping or the arrest of many of them."