Trapped US journalist ran for his life after MEE interview

Bilal Abdul Kareem, a US journalist who has been trapped in eastern Aleppo for the past four months, has described how he was forced to run for his life shortly after recording an interview with Middle East Eye on Wednesday.

“Right after I finished talking to you guys they just lit our place up with artillery fire,” said Kareem.

“It got so bad that we thought they were going to bring the building down. That’s how many hits it took. So we ran to another location and as we were running munitions were going off around us. It was just like TV except there were no cameras and there was no makeup but that was how it was and it was really an intense experience.”

Kareem said the situation was “looking better” on Thursday as buses carrying injured civilians departed from the besieged area for rebel-held Idlib province as a ceasefire appeared to be holding.

In a video posted on Twitter, he said that birds are chirping and people are leaving besieged Aleppo and I hope I will be doing the same thing.
But he added: "Nothing is said and done until it is said and done."

Explosions could be heard in the background as Kareem spoke to MEE on Wednesday. Watch the full video below.