More than 500,000 people are estimated to have fled to the northern city of al-Raqqa over the year-and-a-half long conflict in Syria.<br /><br />That influx of internally displaced Syrians has more than doubled al-Raqqa's population.<br /><br />Now, as opposition fighters say they plan to take the city from the forces of Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, civilians are pleading with the fighters to spare them the violence that would ensue.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Andrew simmons reports exclusively from Tal Abyad on the Turkish border, from where the opposition forces are trying to advance.
