In Aleppo, they cut through cement and cleared away layers of debris, working until --- at last they were able to free a man who was buried under the rubble left by a barrel bomb attack - in this latest video posted to a social media website whose content Reuters cannot indepdently verify.
Similar attacks rocked Deraa, and in Eastern Ghouta, a tree stands in stark contrast to buildings ravaged by days of aerial bombardments.
In Damascus, President Bashar al Assad who was meeting North Korea's Foreign Minister, accused the West and other countries of supporting "extremism and terrorism." He warned that the unrest in his country had spread into Iraq and was now poised to undermine the entire region.
