Aleppo refugees tell horror stories of barrel bombs falling from the sky

Syrians reaching this Turkish border town after escaping the northern city of Aleppo bring horror stories about exploding barrels that fall from the sky.

The worst part was the terrifying anticipation as the barrel bombs were unleashed from helicopters roaring overhead, said one man who fled after three bombs demolished the street where he was living.

The sight of rescuers scraping human remains from the pavement outside her home prompted another of the refugees to leave. A grandmother, said she left simply because life had become unsustainable in the wrecked, rubble-strewn city, where entire neighbourhoods have been depopulated.

“Aleppo is empty,” she said as she sat with her luggage and children after arriving in Turkey last week. “There’s no one left — no shops, no markets, no life at all.”

As peace talks in Geneva ended in deadlock on Saturday, with UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi setting no date for their resumption, the Syrian government’s barrel bombing campaign against the rebel-held half of Aleppo offers a glimpse of what may lie ahead for the country now that negotiations have failed.

The campaign, which began in December, intensified as the peace talks got under way last month, underlining one of the biggest impediments to a negotiated settlement, said Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar.