The Syrian army brought in more reinforcement today after we launched an attack on a checkpoint near the al-Gufran mosque. More than 20 pickups loaded with soldiers and arms arrived here.

The FSA have informed families to leave the district within 10 days before they launch an assault on army positions. The FSA do not want civilians to be shelled by the regime when fighting breaks out.

During a demonstration on Friday people were told to be aware of the coming attack.

Every day here the Syrian army launches a campaign to round up civilians. They are detained at the security compound of the Air Force intelligence.

The bodies of 200 people detained there have been discovered in the last few months, including my cousin Adel Dhibou. My uncle is still inside – we do not know what will happen to him. All the detainees are accused of being members of the FSA or helping the FSA. The army want them to give information about FSA fighters, but some of them have no connection with the FSA.

Schools here are already packed with refugees. The FSA are losing popularity among the people of Aleppo because the regime tells them they are being forced out of their homes because of the FSA attacks.

We are trying to help refugees with all that they need. Our plan is to compensate civilians after the liberation of Aleppo and let everything go back to normal. But we need to settle the battle as soon as possible.

The FSA have to be careful with every bullet because of the shortage of ammunition. We have no rockets to face up to the relentless shelling by the warplanes.

Some Islamist groups, like Jabhat al-Nusra [or the al-Nusra Front] are helping the FSA. But we are trying to distance ourselves from them. Jabhat al-Nusra are fighting to be martyrs but we are fighting to topple Assad’s regime. They are linked to al-Qaida and we are not.

They have lots of foreign fighters from Libya, Iraq, Yemen and other Islamic countries. We are all Syrian fighters within the FSA.