In Syria, the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship, with the help of Russia, is completing the bloody destruction of its largest city. Rebel-held eastern Aleppo is shuddering as bombs rain down, with no place to treat the wounded.

After each airstrike, every second counts. But sometimes all the rescue crews can do is take away the bodies. Between 200 and 300 people have been killed in the past week of relentless bombing.

Hospitals that were still functioning have just now been hit. There are now none left to help the more than 200,000 residents, many of them already gravely hurt.

Rebel-held eastern Aleppo is shuddering as bombs rain down, with no place to treat the wounded. CBS Evening News

Rescue crews known as the White Helmets are now experts at finding -- and saving -- life in the ruins.

A young boy named Hamoudi survived one airstrike. But the bombs are still falling.

The goal is to drive opposition fighters out of eastern Aleppo. Then, the government will be looking to talk to President-elect Donald Trump, said Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.

“We will want the next U.S. administration to stop funding armed groups in Syria and to tell its allies to do the same,” he said.

But that’s politics and this is war -- six years in and still escalating.

This past week’s bombing has been some of the heaviest since the war began.