Syria sent thousands of troops surging toward Aleppo in the early hours of Wednesday, where its forces have been pounding rebel fighters from the air, engulfing the country’s largest city in total warfare to put down a revolt.

“[President Bashar] Assad is fighting hard here because he has already lost control of nearly all the towns around Aleppo,” NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel said from the city’s outskirts on Tuesday…

Syrian forces fired artillery and rocket barrages early on Wednesday at the northern Damascus suburb of al-Tel in an attempt to seize the town from rebels, causing mass panic and forcing hundreds of families to flee the area, residents and opposition activists said.