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ANKARA, TURKEY - DECEMBER 21 : The seven-year-old Syrian girl Bana al-Abed, the child who became known as Aleppo’s icon, since she managed to capture the world attention through her posts on the Twitter social platform speaks to the press alongside her family members, after she met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in capital Ankara on December 21, 2016. The seven-year-old Syrian girl Bana al-Abed said she and her mother feared of being identified by the Assad’s regime forces while being evacuated from Aleppo towards the opposition-held Aleppo’s countryside. “Our home was shelled many times by the Russian and regimes’ airplanes, we were rescued from under the rubble,” Bana told Anadolu Agency. “There was no food there in Aleppo.. we were only eating rice and macaroni,” she replied to a question on what they were eating during the siege that was imposed by the regime forces on Aleppo. “There was no type of fruit, I really missed eating fruit that time,” she lamented. For five months in a row, eastern parts of Aleppo came under tightening siege and persistent aerial bombardment carried out by Russian and Assad’s regime aircrafts. “I dream to go back to my home there in Aleppo, it is true that our home was shelled but I prefer to return back there,” Bana said after being asked if she is going to stay in Turkey. When she was asked of what she dreams to be in the future, Bana insisted that “I would like to be a teacher in the future. I want to teach the children of Aleppo but unfortunately all schools became ruined there.” Bana went on to narrate how she and her family managed to escape from Aleppo to join the evacuation operation. “While getting out of Aleppo, I feared of being identified by the Assad regime forces. For that reason I covered my face with a scarf, me and my mother feared that they may kill us.” (Footage by Bayram Akkaya/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)