Aleppo: Life Under Siege Panorama

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

Aleppo, a city under siege. SIREN WAILS

TRANSLATION:

A quarter of a million people are trapped...

..living in the bombed-out streets of Syria's biggest city.

-WOMAN:

-If you don't have any money to go out of Aleppo,

how you can go?

As the battle for Aleppo intensifies...

EXPLOSION

..four local cameramen film for Panorama.

TRANSLATION:

Based in the rebel-held east,

they witness the struggle to survive

in a city devastated by years of war.

Ismail is alone in Aleppo.

His family are among the hundreds of thousands who have fled the

city since Syria's civil war

reached here in 2012.

HE COUGHS

My life has changed completely.

I was an English teacher before.

I was teaching kids.

He lives in rebel-held territory.

EXPLOSION

The bombing is constant.

I feel at home when I walk in the streets.

I can say my heart is the city and Aleppo is the heart of Syria.

If I leave, who will stay and help the people

who are staying here?

Ismail is a volunteer with Aleppo's Civil Defence Force,

the White Helmets.

In the very beginning of the bombing, the first bombing on my

city was on the market.

And I saw the suffering, I saw the bodies on the street.

I saw people screaming.

When you see someone suffers and they need your help,

you must help them.

Every day Ismail scans the sky for the helicopters and warplanes

flying over his city.

He's being filmed by cameramen,

asked by Panorama to record the lives of people trapped

behind the front line.

They've been filming for the last month.

26-year-old Rahmo drives a taxi.

TRANSLATION:

Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia,

is tightening his grip on rebel positions in East Aleppo.

TRANSLATION:

The city is 30 miles from the Turkish border.

So whoever controls Aleppo,

controls the most crucial supply route into Syria.

People live with the constant threat of death.

TRANSLATION:

CHILDREN LAUGH

Mahmoud is another dad worried about his children.

TRANSLATION:

He used to be an estate agent. He didn't leave when he could.

Now there's no way out.

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Mahmoud says he still can't believe the democracy protests four years

ago ended in bloody civil war.

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Aleppo is one of the oldest cities in Syria

and used to be its economic heart.

Its ancient streets, a World Heritage Site,

now lie in ruins.

Arwa was born here.

Staying is her act of resistance.

TRANSLATION:

She was 14, and already married, when the war started.

TRANSLATION:

She is now a single mother with a four-year-old daughter.

TRANSLATION:

Government forces control western Aleppo,

and since July they've been laying siege to the east.

They say it's become a base for Islamist militants.

The rebels are fighting back.

All across the city, people are suffering.

Basim, one of the cameramen, is out filming with Rahmo, the taxi driver.

They get a call about a bombing.

TRANSLATION:

When they get there, they find their car is destroyed.

A barrel bomb has exploded nearby.

TRANSLATION:

The barrel, packed with explosives,

is pushed from a government helicopter.

It kills 15,

11 are children.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

Beep-beep, beep-beep.

TRANSLATION:

Essential services are also being targeted.

Mahmoud's daughter, Shahad, fetches water. There is none in their flat.

They are luckier than most. There's a tap in the building.

Other families have to wait for water to come to them.

TRANSLATION:

The White Helmet volunteers wait for the next bomb.

EXPLOSION

Reports are coming in of government helicopters in their area.

OVER RADIO:

OVER RADIO:

OVER RADIO:

EXPLOSION

It's another barrel bomb.

They're often dropped in twos.

Ismail and his team wait.

EXPLOSION

SIREN WAILS

TRANSLATION:

SCREAMING

SIRENS WAIL

At least 15 people are killed,

some as they sought safety in an air-raid shelter.

Among the dead are children.

Maryam, whose mother had been desperately trying to find her,

survived.

Most of the victims had been attending the funeral of

those killed by the barrel bomb two days earlier.

When I got back to my centre,

I felt myself that maybe one day, one of my friends or one of

my family will be in the same situation

that I saw in that massacre.

So I was so scared, I was so scared.

How we can forget this picture?

And there's something that...

This is happening every day in Aleppo City.

Around 90,000 children are trapped here.

EXPLOSION

Many families didn't have the money to escape.

Arwa works at a nursery underground.

Children come here when the bombing gets really bad.

TRANSLATION:

Four years of this have left them deeply traumatised.

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

When Rahmo is not driving a taxi, he works as an ambulance driver.

TRANSLATION:

There aren't many ambulances left in Aleppo,

and most hospitals have been bombed.

TRANSLATION:

Rahmo can't afford to drive his taxi any more. The fuel's too expensive.

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

Three weeks into filming,

the Syrian government and its Russian ally

agree to a ceasefire.

It's just in time for Eid, an important Muslim festival.

The local market is busy.

TRANSLATION:

For now, there's enough food, but it's expensive.

TRANSLATION:

Eventually, Mahmoud finds what he's looking for.

TRANSLATION:

Bread used to cost around 15 pence.

Now it's ten times that.

TRANSLATION:

Mahmoud is running out of money.

TRANSLATION:

MUSIC PLAYS

Despite the siege, Basim, one of the cameramen,

has decided to get married.

His friends throw a party.

It's traditional for them to dress the groom.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

THEY CHANT

TRANSLATION:

Away from the cameras, Basim joins his bride.

THEY SING

OVER RADIO:

Ismail and his White Helmet volunteers are on call again.

THEY CHANT

TRANSLATION:

COCK CROWS

BIRDS SING

Ismail is back at the scene of the barrel bomb attack,

which killed at least 15 people at a funeral.

It's this shelter some of the people who died were trying to get to.

The cameramen record many small acts of resistance.

Children burn tyres,

hoping the smoke will hide their streets from the planes above.

TRANSLATION:

This man is trying to fight back with balloons.

TRANSLATION:

Eid celebrations are in full swing.

But the ceasefire already looks fragile.

TRANSLATION:

After a week, the ceasefire breaks.

Aircraft return to the skies.

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

The Assad government continues to deny

that East Aleppo is under siege.

Over the weekend, the bombardment was so intense,

it wasn't safe for the cameramen to film.

Ismail's base has been bombed.

He's alive, but scared.