Children among dead in Syria barrel bomb attack

At least five children were among those killed in the rebel-held neighborhood Bab al-Nayrab it says.

Several videos were posted online by the AMC following the airstrike. The harrowing footage includes two young boys covered in dust, desperately clinging to each other and crying after learning their brother had died.

"My brother is gone," one sobs.

Amnesty International says barrel bombs are a common tactic of the Syrian regime. The strikes come amid Russia's agreement to a 48-hour ceasefire and the United Nations' emphasis on a need for one.

The group also reported eight people were killed Thursday, including two children, when rebels fired mortar rounds into regime-held areas in western Aleppo.

Last week a video posted by the Aleppo Media Center captivated the world and was another stark reminder of the toll of the war in Syria. It showed a boy, Omran Daqneesh -- no older than five years old -- bloodied and covered with dusk, sitting silently in an ambulance awaiting help after his family's house was destroyed by an airstrike.

'I lost five children'

Activists posted videos of the barrel bomb attacks online. CNN cannot independently verify their authenticity.

The videos purportedly taken in the rebel-held area in southern Aleppo show rescuers helping survivors and searching for the missing. Residents dig through rubble, looking for loved ones.

Men and women carry dead children covered with dust, sobbing and crying. In one of the videos, a man sits outside his demolished house, visibly upset. "Don't step over them," he says, referring to his family members. "I lost my five children, oh God."

Mother speaks to dead child

Another video posted by activists in Aleppo shows a woman speaking to her dead child.

"Hassan, it's your mom," the mother says as she looks at the child whose eyes are still open.

"He is my son ... he is gone," she screams. "My sons, your brother is dead, your brother is dead."

She touches his face and closes his eyes.

As the stories of death and destruction come out of Aleppo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry will hold talks in Geneva on Friday that will focus on Syria.

"Unless fighting stops inside, unless those pauses first happen and then become permanent, there's millions of people that are trapped inside the country and I hate to think what their fate is if we cannot reach them very quickly," said Filippo Grandi, the UN High commissioner for refugees.

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