From a bomb crater to a "swimming pool"

In another display of the amazing tenacity of Syria’s besieged children, the journalists of the Aleppo Media Center (AMC) published photos last Wednesday of several Syrian children playing in what appears to be a bomb crater filled with water in an opposition held area of Aleppo.

The AMC is one of no more than a handful of local groups who continue to document the ongoing disaster as it unfolds in what used to be Syria’s largest city.

Regime forces backed by Russia, Iran, and the Lebanese Shia militia of Hezbollah have been continuously waging Assad’s unholy war against the liberated parts of the city, causing devastation and cutting off the delivery of vital food and medical supplies to civilians.

Airstrikes have intensified in recent weeks as a part of amped up efforts by Assad and his Russian allies to wrest control of the liberated areas back from opposition forces after they successfully broke the regime siege and reopened the supply route to opposition held neighborhoods in the southern area of the city.

An estimated 250,000 Syrians of all ages continue to live in the liberated areas of Aleppo even though the majority of the hospitals, schools and civil infrastructure have been destroyed by the relentless bombing.

Even as life gets harder for those living in all areas of the embattled city, children in neighborhoods that have been targeted by regime and Russian airstrikes have learned to adapt to life under siege. 

And instead of trying to hide from the many dangers they face on a daily basis, these brave Aleppo kids make the most of every opportunity to hang onto their precious childhood that they can find. 

To the delight of those living in the Sheikh Saeed district of the city, the crater pool appears to be the serendipitous by-product of a burst water pipe in the area.

So while children in the regime controlled areas of Aleppo continue to enjoy the use of public pools in the heat of summer, besieged children in the Sheikh Saeed neighborhood had no less fun in their makeshift bomb crater pool.

The UN has urged parties on both sides to agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo that would allow medical aid into the embattled city, but the Assad regime and opposition forces have so far failed to reach an agreement on this regard.

Meanwhile, in the midst of never-ending death and destruction, courageous adults in Syria’s besieged areas continue to model for their children the meanings of true grit, determination and perseverance.

“Whatever Assad has done in Aleppo, life isn’t over - its children make a new life in every site destroyed by his rockets," the AMC said in Arabic on its Facebook post.