For the past several days, Damascus has been advertising a major — and what it believes will be final — assault against the myriad rebel groups holding the eastern side of Aleppo, Syria's largest city.
On Sunday, residents and rebels there received text messages from the Syrian government, warning them to leave or face a major military onslaught.
There are an estimated 250,000 people in the rebel-held areas hemmed in by the Syrian army.
"To the armed people in the neighbourhoods of east Aleppo, we are giving you 24 hours only to decide if you are leaving," it read, according to news agencies.
"Your leadership abroad is incapable of getting you out. Whoever wants to stay alive must drop his weapons and we will secure his safety. After the 24 hours is up, we will implement a strategic attack using highly sophisticated weapons."
Arduous journey to Aleppo
Syria is one big grid of deadly rivalry. And control of Aleppo is considered the biggest prize of all. To get there from the capital, Damascus, you have to navigate at least 30 checkpoints over a seven-hour drive. And that's when you're travelling through government-held territory.The government-run checkpoints are short, sharp points of frenetic activity, breaking up long stretches of road through dry desert.
The journey is made much longer by the need to detour away from stretches of land held by the latest incarnation of the jihadist al-Nusra Front or the militants of the Islamic State.
At one checkpoint, we saw someone hauled off a bus. At another, the military police arrived to interrogate a young man apparently trying to evade military service.
And today on the road, there were clear signs of the promised military assault lumbering to life.
In Homs, another city brought to its knees by the conflict, a Russian ammunition convoy rumbled through on the road to Aleppo, accompanied by a tank with five Russian soldiers perched on top of it.