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A Bombing In Syria Wipes Out A Family, But A Baby Survives

The northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been the site of the bloodiest recent fighting in that country's brutal war, and we're still getting only glimpses of the violence.

But GlobalPost has a striking video of a devastating bombing that killed an entire family — except for a 1-year-old boy who survived without any serious injuries.

The video speaks for itself and needs only the briefest explanation.

A helicopter air strike pummeled the three-story apartment building, according to reporter Tracey Shelton. Rescuers then sifted through the rubble by hand, but it appeared that everyone in one family had been killed.

But after six hours of searching, rescuers found Hassan, a one-year-old boy who was "discovered unscathed, still cradled [in his mother's] lifeless arms," Shelton reports.

Shelton is among the few Western reporters who have been filing stories from Aleppo and elsewhere in the region. Her stories have also covered Syrian refugees and how the rebels are getting weapons.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Greg Myre is a national security correspondent with a focus on the intelligence community, a position that follows his many years as a foreign correspondent covering conflicts around the globe.