Cold, disease threaten more than half a million Syrians fleeing Idlib fighting

FILE PHOTO: A view of the trucks carrying belongings of displaced Syrians, in northern Idlib, Syria January 30, 2020. Picture taken January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) - Cold weather, disease and a lack of shelter and medicine threaten hundreds of thousands of civilians as they flee fighting in Idlib province, in one of the biggest upheavals of Syria's nine-year civil war, aid groups and doctors said.

The migrants, their numbers swelling by the day, are trapped between advancing Syrian government forces, keen to crush the last significant opposition stronghold, and Turkey's closed border.