ANKARA: The 7-year-old Syrian girl whose Twitter account provided a tragic window for the world into the destruction of her hometown Aleppo on Thursday described taking up blogging to give a voice to the city’s children.

Bana Al-Abed was one of thousands of people evacuated from once opposition-held areas of Aleppo in the last days under a deal brokered by Turkey and Russia.

She was evacuated on Monday and taken to the Turkish capital along with her family, including her mother Fatemah who manages the account.

“We wanted the world to hear the voice of the children of Aleppo. We spoke of the bombardments and tweeted so that people could see the war,” Bana said.

Bana and her family lived in east Aleppo, which was controlled by the opposition fighting President Bashar Assad’s regime and backed by Turkey.

“I fear the war because he wants to kill us,” she said in apparent reference to Assad. “I am scared. I fear for my brothers and for my parents,” she said in Arabic.

For her 330,000 online followers, Bana became a symbol of the tragedy in Syria, as she and her mother sent poignant tweets on the destruction of their city and the struggles of daily life. Assad’s regime has slammed her and her mother’s messages as propaganda, and pro-regime critics even alleged the account was fake.

But her mother Fatemah, who runs the account @AlabedBana, said such allegations were purely motivated by jealousy.

“I think everyone says that because they are jealous. And they know that we are real and want to make us feel upset.

“So I think they must see this and he will recognize that we are not a propaganda,” Fatemah said, speaking in English. Fatemah said “our life in Aleppo was like a hell.”

“We could not make our children go to school we could not sleep very well. Every time there were bombs — you can’t imagine there the life that we were in.”

“We don’t have enough food, we can’t find clean water we can’t go to hospitals because they were targeted,” she added.

Bana, speaking in English, added: “It was difficult. I was afraid. There is always bombing. Even in the night.”

Most of those evacuated from Aleppo are expected to be housed in refugee camps assisted by Turkey in Idlib province, rather than being brought across the border.

However it makes exceptions for special cases and the wounded. It was not immediately clear if Bana would be staying in Turkey.

Fatemah said the idea for the account came when Bana said ‘Mum, why don’t we hear about the situation in Aleppo and no one helps us?’ “So we decided to make this account to make sure all the world listens to the kids’ voice and help turn attention to the suffering.”

Fans of Bana include the author of the Harry Potter novels J.K. Rowling who sent the family electronic copies of her books. “I would like to thank everyone who helped support the children of Aleppo,” said Bana in English.