With Russian warplanes in the air and Iranian special forces on the ground, an emboldened Syrian President Bashar Assad is turning back to the biggest trophy in his country's civil war, and this time Europe is also on the front line.
As his troops head toward Aleppo, Syria's former commercial hub and largest city, helicopters are dropping warnings to residents to vacate areas. Should Aleppo and other Sunni towns fall to Assad's forces, the potential for another, larger, wave of refugees would be nightmarish, according to one official in a European government.
The province is roughly divided between Assad and the militants. If they see government forces advancing, Syrians "who have been on the fence will be convinced that it's time to go," said Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of London-based consulting firm Cornerstone Global Associates. "You would expect another wave of refugees to try to head toward Turkey and eventually to Europe before the regime closes the border," he said.