While the desperate flight of Syrians from their country’s war was dominating news bulletins, yet another diplomatic push to end the four-year-old conflict was quietly running into the sand.

ON Oct 3, a mortar shell crossed from Syria into Turkey and smashed into Zeliha Timucin’s home, killing Timucin, her sister, and three of her kids.

Cold-blooded sniper killings, indiscriminate shelling, surgery by flashlight, death, fear and hunger in a darkened city under the ruthless hammer of a superior force.