0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07AIRCRAFT RUMBLES OVERHEAD
0:00:07 > 0:00:10There's no end in sight to this brutal war.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14The children of Syria are trapped in this conflict.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20To understand the war, you have to listen to them.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33For the past six months, we followed the lives of six children.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Many are learning to hate.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57'Many more are deeply traumatised.'
0:00:57 > 0:01:00Tell me what it was like for you inside.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Hope, innocence has been lost.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Syria's war is a war on childhood.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27The lives of the children are shaping Syria's future.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42MAN CALLS OUT RHYTHMICALLY
0:02:08 > 0:02:10It's February.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13Jalal and his friends prepare for a national children's event,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15sports day.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18HE SINGS
0:03:02 > 0:03:05Jalal lives in a southern suburb of the capital, Damascus.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14In 2011, President Bashar al-Assad's forces
0:03:14 > 0:03:17suppressed pro-democracy protests,
0:03:17 > 0:03:20sparking a conflict that became a full-scale uprising.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27By 2012, rebels took up arms in Jalal's neighbourhood.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Jalal's father and uncle joined neighbourhood defence units
0:04:05 > 0:04:07set up to fight for the government.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The war, fought street-to-street, tore children's lives apart.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Jalal's neighbourhood is now on a war footing.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11Every Syrian family has a story of sacrifice and suffering.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17Last year, the violence struck his family.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03GUNSHOT
0:06:03 > 0:06:05Just streets from Jalal's home,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08the front line in a key battle for Damascus.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14Two years ago, government forces pushed rebels back.
0:06:14 > 0:06:16But the area is still divided.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19GUNSHOT IN DISTANCE
0:06:22 > 0:06:27This is what now divides one side of Tadamon from the other.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30This is the neighbourhood where Jalal used to play,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32used to go to school, used to be with his friends,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36and now some of his friends are on the other side.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38GUNSHOTS
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Rebel fighters occupy buildings metres away.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Government forces encircle and besiege
0:06:50 > 0:06:52rebel strongholds around Damascus...
0:06:54 > 0:06:59..cutting off food and medicine to force them to surrender.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Warplanes and artillery pound the suburbs,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13but rebel positions are also neighbourhoods
0:07:13 > 0:07:16where tens of thousands of families live.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21BOOMING IN DISTANCE
0:07:21 > 0:07:22BIRDSONG
0:07:27 > 0:07:33Next to Jalal's neighbourhood, Yarmouk, home to some 18,000 people,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37trapped by the siege in the fight against rebel groups.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40Desperate families queue for UN food.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06BABY CRIES
0:08:09 > 0:08:12I've seen many devastated areas in Syria,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15but I've never, ever seen one like this.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19How does a child begin to understand
0:08:19 > 0:08:25when they see their parents bent over by the sheer exhaustion
0:08:25 > 0:08:28of simply surviving another day?
0:08:52 > 0:08:54'His son is called Kifah.'
0:08:54 > 0:08:56How old are you?
0:08:57 > 0:09:00Tell me what it was like for you inside.
0:09:00 > 0:09:02- WOMAN TRANSLATES - Yeah.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17'Kifah's family, like most residents here, is of Palestinian origin,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20'refugees from earlier Middle East wars.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23'Their refuge now feels like a prison.'
0:09:25 > 0:09:27What do you want to do now?
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Kifah's mother has permission to leave.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41She's about to give birth.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45Kifah and his sisters are going with her to stay with relatives.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49Their father isn't allowed out.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Kifah doesn't know when he'll see him again.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Homs, about 100 miles north of Damascus.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19The opposition calls it the capital of the revolution.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Homs has seen some of the worst of the fighting.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27It's a key city in the battle for Syria.
0:10:29 > 0:10:31It's February.
0:10:31 > 0:10:32The UN helps broker a deal
0:10:32 > 0:10:37to allow civilians to leave the city's embattled old quarter.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41It's been under siege and bombardment for nearly two years.
0:10:41 > 0:10:44Children escape from that dark hole
0:10:44 > 0:10:48to the glare of bright lights and balloons.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56Eight-year-old Bara'a - her name means "innocence" -
0:10:56 > 0:10:59has her first proper meal in a long time.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11And what do you want to do now?
0:11:24 > 0:11:26SHE SPEAKS IN ARABIC
0:11:30 > 0:11:35Bara'a and her family are moved to a shelter in a local school
0:11:35 > 0:11:38along with fighters who've also fled the old city.
0:11:41 > 0:11:45They're all closely monitored in this makeshift detention centre.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52Not everyone in Bara'a's family survived the siege.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56Her mother and brother were killed in a bombardment next to their home.
0:12:20 > 0:12:25When there were explosions, when you used to hear the guns,
0:12:25 > 0:12:26what did you do?
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Bara'a doesn't know when she'll be able to go back to school,
0:12:53 > 0:12:56where she'll live next.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03There are millions of Syrian children like her.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Daad is also a child displaced by war.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54Her family fled their home outside Damascus.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57SHE SPEAKS IN ARABIC
0:14:10 > 0:14:14Now they live above a shop in the old city, in a small storeroom.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20They came here after living out of their car for seven months.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Daad's father now sells second-hand clothes
0:14:23 > 0:14:24to try to make ends meet.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Daad lost her old spacious home in 2012
0:14:55 > 0:14:59when it was in the line of fire between the regime and the rebels.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Hard to be a mother? Mm?
0:17:07 > 0:17:10In this war, no-one is sure what will happen next.
0:17:24 > 0:17:29It's March. The street next to Jalal's school is hit by a mortar.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36The bodies of two children are brought out in sacks
0:17:36 > 0:17:39by their relatives to be taken for burial.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14MUSIC PLAYS
0:18:19 > 0:18:22Jalal joins a demonstration against the rebels
0:18:22 > 0:18:24in support of the president.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28His neighbourhood is predominantly Alawite,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31the same Islamic sect as Bashar al-Assad.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59One of Jalal's best friends, 15-year-old Hassan,
0:18:59 > 0:19:01has joined the local defence unit.
0:19:02 > 0:19:03Did you use it?
0:19:12 > 0:19:15You should be playing football, not fighting.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27But war separates him from some of his friends.
0:21:32 > 0:21:34The corrosive effects of this war
0:21:34 > 0:21:37are also felt 250 miles north in Turkey.
0:21:39 > 0:21:44There's been a massive exodus of Syrians into neighbouring countries.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48In March, a steady stream crosses the Turkish border,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51many escaping attacks by President Assad's forces.
0:21:54 > 0:21:56Ten-year-old Ezadine
0:21:56 > 0:21:59is one of more than a million and a half refugee children.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Just over the mountain is Ezadine's home town.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25His new home is a two-room container.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29His world is steeped in the hatred of war.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47'Ezadine's father fought with the Free Syrian Army
0:22:47 > 0:22:48'until he was injured.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50'Omar is 15.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53'He's been fighting with the rebels for two years.'
0:22:53 > 0:22:55Do you want to finish your schooling someday?
0:23:24 > 0:23:26Are you proud of your brother?
0:23:40 > 0:23:43Ezadine prepares to say goodbye to his brother.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48Omar will soon cross the border again to fight inside Syria.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27In March, the battles also intensify around Damascus.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33I try to find the child I met a month before...escaping the siege.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39The little boy that we met in Yarmouk, Kifah,
0:24:39 > 0:24:45left such an impression that I decided to track him down and...
0:24:45 > 0:24:49only to find that, on first glance,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54he's left one wasteland where his family was trapped...
0:24:55 > 0:24:57..for another destroyed neighbourhood.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04BOOMING IN DISTANCE
0:25:04 > 0:25:0813-year-old Kifah has taken refuge with relatives.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11The government recently recaptured this area.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The school, like thousands of others across Syria, is wrecked.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22- Mechanic.- Mechanic.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25Wow! That's very good.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27- Si... Siyara.- Siyara.
0:25:27 > 0:25:29- Englise?- Car.- Car!
0:25:34 > 0:25:38What does Kifah think when he sees all this destruction?
0:25:58 > 0:26:00When you are grown up, what would you like to do?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Doctor? What kind of doctor?
0:26:22 > 0:26:25Kifah's father still hasn't been able to join his family.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28His besieged suburb is still a battle ground.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45What did you do, Kifah, when the rockets fell? What did you do?
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Kifah seems so fragile now. Are you really worried about him?
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Kifah's mother is due to give birth shortly.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53A child due to be born into war.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Finally, some good news for Daad.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11After a year out of school,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14her parents found her a place, close to where they now live.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28Schools across Syria work double shifts
0:28:28 > 0:28:31to cope with the vast number of children of all ages
0:28:31 > 0:28:33displaced by war.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36WOMAN SPEAKS IN ARABIC
0:28:38 > 0:28:40SHE SPEAKS IN ARABIC
0:29:05 > 0:29:07But Daad's past still haunts her.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47And yet, despite everything,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Syria's children are still delighted by rituals.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28CHATTER
0:31:02 > 0:31:04'But life gets harder.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'Daad's father isn't earning much money.
0:31:07 > 0:31:09'They don't want to leave Syria,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12'but they're starting to wonder if they can survive here.'
0:31:24 > 0:31:25It's April.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28The government steps up its offensive against rebels
0:31:28 > 0:31:31still inside the besieged old quarter of Homs.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36The regime is predicting victory in this key city.
0:31:43 > 0:31:45Bara'a!
0:31:45 > 0:31:47'I go back to Homs to find Bara'a.'
0:31:47 > 0:31:50As-salamu alaykum.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Nice to see you.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57Her family left the besieged old city in February
0:31:57 > 0:31:58during an evacuation.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08They've been moved from a makeshift detention centre
0:32:08 > 0:32:12to a school where dozens of families have been given shelter.
0:32:18 > 0:32:20What do you like about this centre?
0:32:45 > 0:32:50All these kids, who've come from areas completely convulsed by war,
0:32:50 > 0:32:55come here, and yet just over the sound of the children's laughter,
0:32:55 > 0:32:59there's the constant sound of artillery, gunfire,
0:32:59 > 0:33:02explosions in the distance.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05Children, they don't seem to notice when they're playing,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08but they know it's there.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19Tell me what you're drawing. These are yours? Uh? Yeah?
0:33:19 > 0:33:21LYSE DOUCET:
0:33:41 > 0:33:44EXPLOSION
0:33:46 > 0:33:48You OK?
0:33:48 > 0:33:50Something's landed. OK.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53Is she OK? OK, stay safe. This is what happens a lot.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55Just when you least expect it,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58there's been an explosion very close to the school.
0:34:01 > 0:34:02Look at the smoke.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06- Where? When?- Stay.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09- Just a second.- Stay, stay.- Where is it? Where is it? What is it?
0:34:09 > 0:34:12- What happened?- Mortar. - Mortar? Where did it land?
0:34:12 > 0:34:14SHOUTING
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Oh...
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Oh, my God, Phil. Are you OK?
0:34:25 > 0:34:27One of them's hit.
0:34:27 > 0:34:28You're hit.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Two of my colleagues are injured and are taken to hospital.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36Our vehicles are badly damaged.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40One child living in this school is lightly wounded.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51This is what happens day in, day out in Syria.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55The mortar strikes, there's chaos, injuries and sometimes death,
0:34:55 > 0:35:00and then see how quickly things go back to what they were before.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03But you can't call this normal.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Government assaults on rebel-held areas are often indiscriminate.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22Crude barrel bombs packed with explosives and dropped from aircraft
0:35:22 > 0:35:25are wounding and killing a growing number of children.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57Mariam is nine years old, from a village outside Homs.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01For the past year, she's been a refugee in Turkey.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38Mariam's rebel-held village
0:36:38 > 0:36:41regularly came under attack by Syrian government forces.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18What happened at the hospital?
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Mariam's home is now a tented refugee camp on the Syrian border.
0:37:48 > 0:37:52She likes to escape to the nearby wheat fields.
0:37:52 > 0:37:53They remind her of her farm.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41There is no accurate figure
0:38:41 > 0:38:45for the number of children maimed and killed in this war.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48The estimates run to many tens of thousands.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Mariam's father is still stuck inside Syria.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56She doesn't know when she'll see him again.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:24 > 0:39:28In Damascus, a big day out for Jalal and his friends.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31They've been preparing for it for some time.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43It's children's sports day.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Even sport isn't free from war.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Days like this play a role in government mobilisation.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24For decades, Syrian students were raised to support the regime.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Now they're called to defend their president.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00MUSIC PLAYS
0:41:55 > 0:41:57CHEERING
0:42:24 > 0:42:29Daad's family faces a new crisis in the old city of Damascus.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Now Daad's family faces eviction from this storeroom.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Near the Turkish border,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22the war inside Syria becomes more complicated.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25The opposition is deeply divided.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27Factions are fighting against each other.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31Ezadine waits the crossing.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34His brother, Omar, is arriving today from the front.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20Omar, who fights for the Free Syrian Army,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24blames the atrocities on extreme Islamist fighters.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Rebels still control swathes of territory.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Fighting against President Bashar al-Assad's forces
0:46:37 > 0:46:39intensifies in the north.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43Ezadine's anger is directed not just towards the president
0:47:43 > 0:47:46but also his Alawite community.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23It's late April.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26The war goes on near Jalal's house in Damascus,
0:48:26 > 0:48:28but not on the same scale.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Jalal's father is still with the local defence unit,
0:48:42 > 0:48:45but the mood on some streets is more relaxed.
0:49:38 > 0:49:42Jalal hopes his former friends across the front line
0:49:42 > 0:49:45will return someday to support President Assad's Syria.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Every Friday evening, Jalal's family gathers.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21There's a growing mood here, at least,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24that recent gains by President Assad's forces
0:50:24 > 0:50:26could herald a turning point.
0:51:14 > 0:51:16BOOMING IN DISTANCE
0:51:22 > 0:51:26It's early May in the old city of Homs.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30The last of the rebel fighters have done a deal with the government
0:51:30 > 0:51:33that allows them to leave for another rebel-held area.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36It's the end of the brutal two-year siege.
0:51:37 > 0:51:42The government surrender-or-starve tactic has worked here,
0:51:42 > 0:51:44as well as in some other areas.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49But it's come at a heavy price.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51Not much is left.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Bara'a, her father and sister, Ala'a, can now return
0:51:59 > 0:52:04to see their old neighbourhood and the home they fled a few months ago.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15On the way to their street, we pass their old school.
0:52:37 > 0:52:40Bara'a's home has been looted and stripped bare.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57Bara'a's family took shelter here from constant shelling,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00mortar and rocket fire during the siege.
0:53:10 > 0:53:13Their brother was mortally wounded,
0:53:13 > 0:53:15their mother decapitated.
0:53:29 > 0:53:32They go to tend the graves.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45Since the Syrian military entered the area,
0:53:45 > 0:53:49the mosque has been set on fire and the tombstones smashed.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59The graves have been tampered with.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03Bara'a's father quickly covers up exposed bodies.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55It's mid-May.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57There's some good news for Kifah.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59He has a new baby sister.
0:55:12 > 0:55:16After a pregnancy spent with fear, hunger and bombardment,
0:55:16 > 0:55:19it's a huge relief to have a healthy child.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37Kifah's father hasn't seen his new daughter.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40He's still stuck inside the suburb of Yarmouk.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55In May, we finally get permission from the army
0:55:55 > 0:55:57to return to the besieged area.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02Fighting continues, despite efforts to reach a truce.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Food and medicine are still scarce.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11When aid does get in, queues are long and desperate.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27We're trying to find Kifah's father.
0:56:27 > 0:56:30We've brought him photographs of his new baby.
0:56:31 > 0:56:34He hasn't seen the little one.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37He also hasn't seen his family for months.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40He's still trapped, just like everyone else here.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47We aren't allowed to go in any further.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50We don't reach Kifah's father.
0:56:54 > 0:56:59Syria's war is now well into its fourth year, with no end in sight.
0:57:00 > 0:57:03Kifah still isn't at school,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05just like three million other Syrian children.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16When do you hope to go back to school?
0:57:20 > 0:57:21But children on all sides
0:57:21 > 0:57:24are further than ever from reconciliation.
0:58:22 > 0:58:28With every day that passes, children are displaced, traumatised, killed.
0:58:45 > 0:58:48These children are the future of Syria.
0:58:48 > 0:58:53The longer this war goes on, the darker that future may be.