Syrians in Turkish border town doubt fighting will soon end

The thousands of Syrians who now call the Turkish border town of Kilis home are praying for a halt to hostilities on Friday, but few actually expect that will happen.

"God willing, the fighting will stop,"Ahmed Ahmedtold CBC News.

"The United States and Russia could have stopped the fighting but they have done nothing in the last five years. So why should we believe them now?"

• Hospitals, school levelled as Russian-backed Syrian troops move on Aleppo
• Kerry takes aim at Russia over Ukraine and Syria
• Photos give rare glimpse of daily life during Syria's civil war

Syrian refugees have taken over much of the Karatash neighbourhood of Kilis, which lies about 10 kilometres from the Syrian border.

On Monday, the violence in Syria continued, with missilestrikes hitting three hospitals and a school in the northern regionof the country. A news agency reported more than 30 wounded Syrians were takento Kilis Statehospital.

Before the war, 80,000 people lived in Kilis. Now, it's population has more than doubled as Syrians have sought shelter there from the war ravaging their country since 2011.

Most of the Syrian children living in Kilis do not go to school. Some of the adults work, earning money in the black market economy that flourishes.

Ahmed, 54, worked selling fruits and vegetables in Aleppo before fleeing with his family to Turkey three years ago.

"We all want to go home. This is our hope. But when? Or how? We are skeptical,"he said.

World powers, including the United States and Russia, agreed to what they're calling a "cessation of hostilities"inside Syria to begin on Friday.

But the Syrian government and several rebel groups say they will continue the fighting. Forces loyal to Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, continue their assault on Aleppo, backed by Russian airstrikes.

'Bombing our forces'

"The Russians have vetoed ... the efforts to bring peace to Syria many times. And now they are bombing our forces,"said Zakaria Malahiji, the political director for several moderate Syrian rebel groups backed by the West. "How can we take their proposal seriously?"

Malahiji said fighters aligned in his coalition would consider respecting the call for Friday's truce if it's followed by a credible political process to determine who will lead Syria. The rebels say it's unacceptable that Assad remains in power.

"The Syrian people have the right to decide their leaders,"he told CBC News.

For some Syrians, years of fighting have hardened positions on who best represents them.

Mohamed Grash, 21, also wants Assad gone. But the young Sunni Muslim Syrian now living in Kilis wants ISIS to lead the country.

"Now is the time for Syria to become an Islamic country,"Grash said. "The regime doesn't represent me and my people. I don't trust anyone but Daesh,"he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Fractured country

Grash, who works in a Turkish cellphone shop to help his family put food on the table, said he views the violence carried out by ISIS fighters as "un-Islamic,"but he backs the group as it most closely represents his values.

Support among ordinary Syrians for ISIS shows just how fractured the countryhas become as Syria's war enters its sixth year next month and how difficult it will be to piece society back together when the war ends.

But among the Syrians living in Kilis, there's a sense that Friday's truce will fail and the fighting will go on.

"Only God knows when we will be able to go home,"said an elderly Syrian woman who lives with her family in a shelter made of concrete blocks covered by a blue tarp. "We must keep on waiting."