THE CITY OF Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities on the planet.

It is home to historical sites and was once an economic and cultural capital of the middle east and the second city of Syria.

Now, however, it is the setting for some of the bloodiest fighting of the Syrian civil war, a three-year-old conflict that has left 150,000 people dead.

The UN estimates that 1.25 million people are in need of food in Aleppo city and rural parts of the governorate, with only 40 doctors left to treat 2.5 million people. Before the war, there were 2,000.

Government troops have taken to using “barrel bombs”, crudely put together but deadly bombs made from TNT packed into oil drums.

However, escape is difficult, particularly for young men with nowhere else to go.

This video from Agence Fress-Press (AFP), shows that just like anyone else in a sweltering summer, the locals like to cool down.

What is unlike everyone else is that their swimming pools are caused by bombing.

“In the past we used to swim in pools downtown. Now Assad bombards us with explosive barrels and their craters become pools,” says one young man.

“It’s very hot and we can’t sleep during the day or at night.”

Read: At least 42 dead after ‘TNT-packed barrels’ dropped on Syrian city of Aleppo

Read: ‘Enough, we said, enough’: UN humanitarian agencies call for end to Syria conflict