After more than five years of war, Syrians appear to be using the wildly popular Pokémon Go in a desperate effort to draw attention to their country’s conflict. 
 
 A Facebook page affiliated with the Syrian opposition posted images on Wednesday claiming to show young Syrian children in the area of Idlib, in northern Syria. They’re holding paper signs with pictures of Pokemon characters, and calling on people to save them. 
 
 “I am in Kafr Nabl on the outskirts of Idlib, come and save me,” one sign says, echoing phrases on a handful of others. “I am in Kafr Zeta, save me,” one reads. “I am Kafr Nabouda, save me,” urges another. 
 
 https://twitter.com/syria_children/status/755896915854843905 
 
 It’s unclear who, or what group, was behind the images. But they bear the logo of the RFS, which is self-described online as the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office that “reports on the Syrian revolution professionally and objectively,” according to its Twitter account. It appears to be affiliated with the Syrian opposition. The images were also circulated by other accounts affiliated with the opposition, which has been fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime since 2011. 
 
 “I never imagined we would like to become a game in order to gain the world’s attention,” a Twitter account called Children of Syria posted on Wednesday, with the pictures of the children. 
 
 The effort specifically sought to draw attention to the situation in the vicinity of Idlib, a rebel-held city in northeastern Syria that has been hit heavily by regime-led airstrikes. On Wednesday, the same day the images of the children holding the posters were circulated, Sky News Arabia reported that more than 50 people were killed by airstrikes in the city within the last 24 hours. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on its website that warplanes struck neighborhoods in eight raids, and helicopters dropped explosive barrels on Tuesday in two towns in the southern countryside of Idlib. 
 
 It’s just one area suffering from ongoing combat. UNICEF said it estimates 35,000 children are trapped in and around the Syrian city of Manbij, about 100 miles northeast of Idlib. “In the past six weeks, and as violence has intensified, over 2,300 people were reportedly killed in the area, among them dozens of children,” UNICEF said in a statement on Wednesday. A video that surfaced this week showed a 12-year-old boy brutally beheaded near Aleppo. 
 
 In April, a U.N. special envoy for Syria said some 400,000 people have died in the conflict since it started in 2011. 
 
 More Syrian Refugees Congratulate Turkish President Erdogan 
 
 In another Pokémon-focused initiative aimed at grabbing attention, Syrian artist Saif Aldeen Tahhan posted images last week on his Facebook account showing six images of Poké Balls pictured with symbols of what Syrians need after years of war: homes, first aid kits, school books, and life rafts for Syrian refugees. 
 
 “The world is buzzing with this game, and I told myself, why not show our pain?” Tahhan told Al Arabiya. “They are looking for the Pokémon, but the Syrian people are looking for how to live right now.” 
 
 According to Al Arabiya, Tahhan left Syria for Denmark a year and a half ago. ||||| Tweet with a location 
 
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 You must log in to continue. ||||| A campaign involving children in Syrian villages has latched on to the Pokémon Go craze, asking gamers in the west to take a break from their frenzied hunt for digital creatures to turn their attention to young people trapped in war zones. 
 
 Several children have been photographed holding up printouts with popular Pokémon characters, a location in the heart of Syria and a message to “come save me”. 
 
 The pictures were shared by an online news service, the Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office. It did not respond to requests for comment on the origins of the photos or organisers of the campaign. 
 
 إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) #PrayForSyria 
 
 Save me !! I am in #Syria pic.twitter.com/26Tg5RUuUn 
 
 The locations given are near the cities of Hama and Idlib, which have seen years of heavy fighting and aerial bombardment and are currently held by forces opposed to the president, Bashar al-Assad. 
 
 إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) #PrayForSyria 
 
 I am from Kafer-Nabodah #Hama #Syria come & save me !! #PokemonGo pic.twitter.com/fUEMFGPm1s 
 
 Another image shows a child next to a weeping superimposed Pikachu in a bombed-out building, as if it were a screenshot from the actual game. 
 
 إعلام قوى الثورة (@RFS_mediaoffice) #PrayForSyria 
 
 I am from #Syria come to save me!!! pic.twitter.com/lRbSlGsWrB 
 
 Pokémon Go’s augmented reality technology projects digital creatures on to the streets around a player as viewed on a smartphone. 
 
 It has proved enormously popular, sometimes dangerously so as players staring at their screens have paid little heed to the real world they are moving through. 
 
 Players in Bosnia have been urged to avoid areas littered with unexploded mines left over from the 1990s conflict, and Indonesian police detained a French man who trespassed on a military base while playing the game. 
 
 There have been a string of reports of less dramatic problems across America: one woman got stuck in a tree in a New Jersey cemetery, a Baltimore man drove into a police car, and a man in New Hampshire was robbed at knifepoint. 
 
 The game’s popularity has also provoked religious controversy, with Saudi Arabia’s top clerical body reviving a 2001 religious edict prohibiting Pokémon.
– Children in war-torn Syria are holding pictures of Pokemon in the hopes the rest of the world, currently obsessing over Pokemon Go, will take notice, the Independent reports. According to Vocativ, photos of the children started circulating online Wednesday, the same day airstrikes in the city of Idlib killed more than 50 people. In addition to pictures of Pokemon, the children's signs bear messages like "I am here, come save me" along with their location. Most of the children appear to be near Idlib and another city, Hama, the Guardian reports. Those cities have seen years of fighting between the Syrian government and opposition forces. “I never imagined we would like to become a game in order to gain the world’s attention,” Vocativ quotes a Twitter account called Children of Syria. The photos originally appeared on a Facebook page belonging to the Revolutionary Forces of Syria, and they bear that opposition group's logo. They have also been circulated by other groups connected to the opposition against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. It's possible they are simply meant as propaganda. If that's the case, they are effective attention-getters. “The world is buzzing with this game,” Vocativ quotes a Syrian artist who is also using Pokemon Go to draw attention to Syria. “They are looking for the Pokemon, but the Syrian people are looking for how to live right now.” Syria's children are in a desperate situation. UNICEF says 35,000 children are trapped in the city of Manbij alone and dozens more have been killed there in recent weeks.