Here's Assad's Sinister Plan For Retaking Syria's Largest City [GRAPHIC]

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For the last three months, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been dropping steel barrels packed with explosives and shrapnel on various rebel-held areas, including parts of the country's largest city of Aleppo.

The result: Apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, and countless civilian lives have been indiscriminately obliterated as Syrian forces advance and America fecklessly calls for diplomacy.

After the bombs drop, the frantic search for survivors begins.

syria

REUTERS/Hosam Katan

People search for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's al-Sakhour district March 6, 2014.

Most of the time, what's found are bodies ...

syria

REUTERS/Hosam Katan

People search for survivors under the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's al-Sakhour district March 6, 2014.

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Sometimes, miracles happen.

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Bassam Khabieh/Reuters

A man carries a baby who survived what activists say was an airstrike by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus January 7, 2014.

But even then the survivors are scarred for life.

syria

REUTERS/Hosam Katan

A woman survivor holds her crying baby in a hospital in Aleppo's al-Sakhour district, after what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped at Aleppo's Haydariye district by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, March 9, 2014.

The civilians also must continue living in a place where their president is killing them on a mass scale.

syria

REUTERS/Hosam Katan

A survivor sits on the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo's al-Sakhour district March 6, 2014.

Even though the city, which used to be Syria's commercial hub, is turning into a hellscape.
syria

REUTERS/Hosam Katan

A general view of damage after what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Al-Maysar neighbourhood of Aleppo February 23, 2014.

Here's what a barrel bomb looks like from meters away: