Young girl takes to Twitter to depict life in Aleppo

Her hair tied into pigtails by matchingpink ribbons, seven-year-old Bana Alabed inspects the rubble inher home town of Aleppo, before walking to face the camera.

"I am sad. It's so bad," she tells her audience in Englishin a clip posted on Twitter. She is later seen holding a bannerreading: "Stand with Aleppo. Please stop the bombing and end thesiege."

The video, posted on Tuesday and accompanied by the text"checking in the morning after a night of bombing" is the latestthe young girl has shared with her nearly 94,000 Twitterfollowers depicting life in the war-torn Syrian city.

Her account gives a poignant human face to a nearly six-yearconflict pitting President Bashar al-Assad against rebelsseeking to oust him, in which hundreds of thousands of peoplehave been killed and millions forced from their homes.

Renewed airstrikes, after a pause that lasted severalweeks, have worsened conditions in Aleppo's rebel-held east,where residents are short of food, medicine and fuel.

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On her Twitter account, which is managed by her mother,Alabed shares pictures of the city's bombed buildings and ofherself at home.

"Good afternoon from #Aleppo I'm reading to forget the war,"she said in one post showing Alabed with a book and a doll. Apicture posted on Thursday of smoke in the sky had the caption"Good morning from #Aleppo. We are still alive. - Bana."

Asked about what they hoped to achieve, Alabed's motherFatemah, told Reuters via Twitter in English: "Effort to showpeople our [lives]so they can act. We only tweet what we thinkof. The video is near our home, our neighbourhood [is]in ruin."

The seven-year-old's tweets have gained attention from atleast one prominent user of the micro-blogging site.

When Fatemah tweeted Harry Potterauthor J.K. Rowlingabout her daughter wanting to read one of her stories, thewriter and her agent quickly responded.

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Fatemah said Alabed had since received Harry Potterebooksand would start reading them.

Alabed tweeted her thanks with apicture to which the author replied: "Love you too, Bana!Thinking of you, keep safe #Aleppo."