These pictures reveal Syrians' desperate struggle to survive after fleeing Idlib violence

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By Natalia Liubchenkova
Members of a family of internally displaced Syrians eat together in an underground shelter where several families from Aleppo and Idlib provinces are taking refuge.
Members of a family of internally displaced Syrians eat together in an underground shelter where several families from Aleppo and Idlib provinces are taking refuge.   -  Copyright  Aref TAMMAWI / AFP

More than 900,000 people have fled the latest violence in northwest Syria since December 1, according to the UNHCR.

They have scrambled to escape a widening, multi-front offensive by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s Russian-backed forces

The displaced hide in underground caves, unfinished shelters and cemeteries. Some burn clothes to ward off freezing temperatures.

AL-RIFAI / AFP
Smoke billowing over the village of Qaminas, about 6 kilometres southeast of Idlib city, following reported Syrian airstrikes.AL-RIFAI / AFP
Ibrahim YASOUF / AFP
Members of a Syrian family, fleeing attacks by pro-regime forces, drive past a burning shop in the town of Abin Semaan in the countryside west of the northern city of Aleppo.Ibrahim YASOUF / AFP
Nayef Al Aboud / AFP
Syrians salvage some of their belongings from the rubble of houses as they prepare to flee the town of Atareb in the rebel-held western countryside of Syria's Aleppo province.Nayef Al Aboud / AFP
Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP
An aerial photograph shows destroyed buildings in the Syrian town of Ihsim in the southern countryside of Idlib.Omar HAJ KADOUR / AFP
AAREF WATAD / AFP
Syrian boys sit at a cemetery where displaced families took refuge in its prayer hall, in the town of Sarmada in Syria's northwestern Idlib province,AAREF WATAD / AFP
Aref TAMMAWI / AFP
An aerial view of the entrance of an underground shelter where several families of internally displaced Syrians from Aleppo and Idlib provinces are taking refuge.Aref TAMMAWI / AFP
Aref TAMMAWI / AFP
Members of a family of internally displaced Syrians eat together in an underground shelter where several families from Aleppo and Idlib provinces are taking refuge.Aref TAMMAWI / AFP
Omar HAJ KADOUR/ AFP
An armoured personnel carrier carrying members of the "Syrian National Army", an alliance of Turkey-backed rebel groups, followed by a pickup truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun ride in the town of Sarmin, near the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria.Omar HAJ KADOUR/ AFP
Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters prepare to fire shells at a position near the village of al-Nayrab, about 14 kilometres southeast of the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria, amid clashes with government forces.Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP
Aref TAMMAWI/ AFP
An aerial photograph shows a newly-created camp for internally displaced people near the town of Maarrat Misrin in Syria's Idlib province.Aref TAMMAWI/ AFP