LATAKIA, Syria — “They told us they’ll kill us, and they’ll kill the babies inside of us,” said Mariam Hussein, describing the horrors her neighborhood faced before her family fled in the middle of the night.

Sitting inside a small classroom she converted into a home for herself and her four children, Mariam has been living in the Sports College in the middle of Latakia city for the last four years along with 262 other extended family members who fled their home in Harem, Idlib, following fierce battles and a harrowing siege. The siege was imposed by opposition fighters in the area in the summer of 2011 and evolved over the next 18 months.

Harem, which was once home to around 22,000 people, the majority of them Sunnis, is situated right across the border from Turkey. When the protest movement began in 2011, many of Harem's neighborhoods remained pro-government, including the one where Mariam and her family lived.

“There was nothing in the world better than our lives in Harem,” she said. “We wanted for nothing. We were all very happy, working on our lands in the area.”