Middle East

The United Nations human rights agency says it has reports that hundreds of people attempting to leave rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria, have been prevented from doing so by rebel forces. It also says hundreds of men who left have gone missing after reaching regime-controlled areas and are believed to have been imprisoned or killed.

"I don't even know how to describe the kinds of things that are landing on us," a dentist trapped in one of Aleppo's last rebel-held neighborhoods tells NPR.

As the forces aligned with the Syrian government move deeper into rebel areas in the city of Aleppo, residents there and the international community call for help and a ceasefire.