At the crack of dawn, Fatima rouses her son Nafissa from a deep sleep. If all goes according to plan, they could be in Turkey within hours, safe from the violence that has haunted them for weeks.

They started shooting at us but thank God we escaped. We have spent several days staying with friends and today we will cross the border

As preparations for the journey are made, another son, Ali, plays nearby. His parents pack what little they brought with them into plastics bags and get ready to leave the safe house where they spent the night.

“I am taking my family far from Syria,” says Ahmed bin Habib, lighting a cigarette.

“I give up. I can’t carrying on fighting.”

The 30-year-old father managed to flee with his family from the restive northern city of Idlib, which fell to government forces earlier this month after a withering assault.

“The soldiers surrounded the city. We couldn’t escape at night,” he recalls.

“They started shooting at us but thank God we escaped. We have spent several days staying with friends and today we will cross the border,” he adds.

“We left because we were afraid,” he says, recalling the horrific scenes he witnessed in Idlib.

Ahmed helps his younger brother Mohammad, whose leg was badly wounded by a projectile some three months ago, to get up.

“He must get to Turkey to avoid being disabled for life,” he says.

Mohammad explains his desperation to get to Turkey.

“I didn’t dare go to the public hospitals (in Syria). They torture the nurses and the wounded there,” he says.

The journey begins at 7 a.m. Four men are waiting outside the house to drive the family to the Turkish border, to join the 17,000 Syrian refugees that Turkey says have already crossed over.

The luggage is placed in a trunk and as they depart, the driver, a member of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), inquires by walkie-talkie about the state of the route.

“Everything is clear, all the way to the destination,” a crackly voice replies.

The convoy heads off from Sardana, carrying the fugitives to a location 15 kilometres from Syria’s northern frontier, but they must cover the second leg of the route on foot.

The cars hurtle along at top speed, bypassing the rebel barricades, under the envious watch of villagers at the roadside.

Finally they stop at an olive grove, where four other rebels are waiting in the shade. The walk begins, but the going is slow and tiring.

One of the FSA rebels carries Mohammad on his back. Behind them, Nafissa and Ali walk hand in hand with their frail mother.

To quicken their progress, the father then decides to carry his youngest child on his shoulders.

“After Homs and Idlib were taken, we lost hope,” says Abu Mustafa, a fellow traveller.

“All my family fled to refugee camps in Turkey, and I am going to join them.”

A huge red Turkish flag is now visible in the distance, towering above a small army barracks that sits in the middle of the plain.

After an hour, the group arrives at the border crossing.

One of the rebels makes a phone call, as the others wait nervously.

Two of them then cross the border, saluting the Turkish captain.

Mohammad follows, assisted by his brother. The Turkish soldiers offer him a mattress as he waits for an ambulance.

Then the others cross one by one, after their bags have been inspected.

The mother and her youngest are the last to arrive.

How the unrest in Syria unfolded

2011

March
15: First protests in response to a Facebook call for a “Day of Dignity”.

18-27: The regime cracks down on pro-reform protests in Damascus, Banias and Daraa, the cradle of the uprising where 100 are reportedly killed on the 23rd. Deadly violence also hits Latakia.

April
18: Damascus vows to crush what it calls an “armed revolt” by “Salafists”.

25-26: The protests spread and strengthen, with calls for the regime’s fall. In June the army deploys near the border with Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon.

July
15: More than one million protest, notably in Hama and Deir Ezzor. On the 31st, the army kills 100 in Hama.

August
18: US President Barack Obama and his allies urge Mr Assad to quit. Western and Arab countries later impose sanctions on the regime.

November
16: Army defectors, members of the Free Syrian Army, attack a military intelligence base near Damascus.

2012

February
4: China and Russia veto a resolution condemning the repression at the UN Security Council, the second time they have done so.

22: Two Western journalists, from the US and France, killed in shelling in Homs, after a French journalist was killed there in January.

24: Arab and Western nations meeting in Tunisia recognise the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), which was established in October in Istanbul, as “a legitimate representative of Syrians seeking peaceful democratic change.”

March
1: Regime forces seize Homs’ Baba Amr district after a 27-day assault in which rights groups say hundreds were killed.

10-11: UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan visits. Nearly 150 are killed.

14: Regime forces seize Idlib city after a four-day assault. Amnesty International says detainees are being “systematically tortured”.

17: Two bombs in Damascus and one in Aleppo in the north. Since late December dozens have been killed in attacks, with the regime and militants blaming each other.

21: The UN Security Council demands that Syria immediately implement a peace plan put forward by envoy Mr Annan, and calls on Mr Assad to work towards a cessation of hostilities and a democratic transition.

24: The head of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, announces the formation of a military council grouping all rebel chiefs.

27: Syrian troops shell Homs. State television reports that Mr Assad tours the city’s flashpoint Baba Amr neighbourhood. Hundreds of opponents gather in Istanbul.

Mr Annan, in Beijing, calls for China’s help and advice, after a visit to Moscow.

Mr Annan spokesman says Syria says it accepts Mr Annan’s peace plan.