We had been told we were going on a trip to the front line in Damascus. Instead, we were driven to an airfield and packed into an old Soviet-made Yakovlev YAK-40 aircraft. It wasn't until we were in the air that government officials on the flight finally offered up some information.
"We are going to Aleppo," one said with a smile. He told reporters that ours would be the first civilian aircraft to land at the city's international airport since December 2012, when the airfield was shut because of heavy clashes in the area.
We sat still, slightly nervous about the guinea pig role we had been thrust into by the government, as our pilot performed a spectacular combat landing on a foggy day. As the aircraft taxied toward the terminal we finally realized that we were the news of the day. A live transmission vehicle and dozens of reporters were waiting to greet us as Syrian government TV carried the live banner proclaiming "The reopening of Aleppo Airport and the landing of a commercial flight."
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Mohammed Wahid al Akad, Aleppo's provincial governor, was on hand to greet us, eager to show us the gains that Syrian forces had made in and around the city -- and also talk about the ongoing negotiations in Switzerland between representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and various opposition factions.
"What we want from Geneva is to stop foreign money, fighters and weapons coming into Syria. We as Syrians can reconcile with each other, make our own government to rebuild our country," he said. Three buses picked us up for a tour of areas the military had recently taken back from rebels.
Aleppo and its surrounding areas are a key battleground in Syria's hard-fought, nearly three-year-old civil war. The killings have been far too numerous to count.
In December, overwhelmed doctors scurried to help scores of patients amid days of air raids by the government.
"There was a big massacre today," Dr. Ammar Zakaria told CNN at the time. "We were treating shrapnel wounds, deep abdominal and brain injuries. I just lost count of the amputations."
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