Story highlights Civilians fear a new danger: the approaching winter

Syrian ambassador to Russia says a major battle for Aleppo looms

(CNN) From under a mattress, a small child emerges on all fours, oblivious to the danger in the skies. Out from another mattress crawls a baby.

Rare amateur video obtained by CNN shows entire families in farm fields cowering under mattresses as they attempt to shield themselves from airstrikes -- as if bedding could protect them from aerial bombardment.

The video, reported to be from the countryside south of Aleppo, provides a harrowing view of the toll Syria's war is taking on mothers, fathers, children and babies. Aid agencies say tens of thousands of people may be on the move from this swath of poor farmland as fighters from the Syrian regime, Iran and Hezbollah move through on their way to Aleppo.

Ambassador: 'Decisive battle' ahead

The situation is confused in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, with a population of over 2 million people. It's about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the Mediterranean coast and the same distance from the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep.

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