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Florida for the Win; Twister Hits New York City; Walking to Get Healthy; Syrian Crisis Worsens

Aired September 08, 2012 - 19:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon. We want to get you up to speed on some of our top stories.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

LEMON: A tornado? There it is, hits New York City. This is Breezy Points. It's in Queens. It hit today.

That funnel cloud you're seeing there was confirmed as an EF-0 tornado. It's formed over the water and moved up the beach while hundreds of people watched it. Nobody was reported hurt. But the twister beat up some houses and tore down power lines.

In the presidential race, Republican Mitt Romney is trying to flip Virginia from blue to red. The Romney campaign there today is slamming President Obama over Friday's disappointing jobs report. Obama won Virginia in 2008. The president hit the trail in Florida, trying to hold on to another state he won four years ago. We'll have more from Florida in just a few minutes.

A suicide bomber killed six Afghan civilians and wounded four others today near NATO's headquarters in Kabul. The police chief says children were among those killed. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for the bombing. The U.S. embassy in Kabul condemned the attack, saying insurgents have no respect for life. Police believe the suicide bomber was a teenager.

A Tulane University football player will need spinal surgery after a brutal injury today. Check it out. Safety Devon Walker fractured his spine in a collision with a teammate during a game against Tulsa. He's listed now in stable condition. Walker also suffered a collapsed lung and had to be revived on the field before being rushed to the hospital.

I want to tell you that tomorrow morning on CNN, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is looking at football injuries. More than 3,000 former NFL players and their families are suing the league over head injuries and the question is: what did they know and when did they know it? Were league officials more aware of the danger than they led on? Dr. Gupta, M.D., "DR. SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." airs tomorrow morning, 7:30 Eastern.

Presidential candidates like to say that every vote counts, but if you want to see which ones count the most, look at where they are today. President Obama is in Florida, a state he won in 2008, but one that could go for the Republicans this year. His opponent, Republican Mitt Romney, he's in Virginia. His campaign hopes Friday's jobs report will put the state in the undecided column.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Now with the unemployment level having stuck above 8 percent for 43 straight months, we remember that the president promised if we let him borrow almost a trillion dollars, he'd never let it reach 8 percent. It's been above 8 percent ever since. This president has not fulfilled his promises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Romney's number two, Paul Ryan is in California, a state the Republicans have little chance of winning, but where they can harvest campaign cash.

Vice President Joe Biden using his blue collar background to woo voters in another swing state, Ohio.

Of course, not all swing states are created equal. Florida has its Latinos, its seniors, its veterans and all kinds of other voters. Winning them all is a bit of a balancing act. And our chief White House correspondent Jessica Yellin is traveling with the president, witnessing this balancing act in person.

So, Jess, the president is in just any swing state. He's in a swing state area in a swing state. So what about that? Tell us what that means.

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. You nailed it. He's in the -- in central Florida, in the I-4 corridor. It's a trip of highway that runs across the state and it's where the state's swing voters live. He's traveled from west to east today, and I'm right now in Kissimmee, Florida, which is where the president spoke earlier, kind of near Disney World.

This morning, he spoke in front of -- at a college in front of younger crowd, so trying to those youth voters who helped put him over the edge in 2008. They're not quite showing the same enthusiasm they showed back then. So trying to turn up the volume, turn up the energy in that group.

Here in Kissimmee, a big Latino population, so trying to target that group and some of the issues that are popular with Latinos. Obamacare, that seems to be an issue that resonates there, as well as some of the efforts he's made more recently with sort of the DREAM Act-lite, if you will, that he's pressed.

And also, he's going to do what he can to work on those likability numbers. You know, he has the slight advantage over Mitt Romney. And, right now, he's made a special top, I guess, not announced to the press, but he's right now at a sports bar in Orlando, Gator Dockside, I guess. Drinking beer appeals to everyone -- Don.

(LAUGHTER) LEMON: A swing state area in a swing state. Thank you, Jessica. We appreciate it.

I want to tell you that coming up tonight at 10:00 p.m. here on CNN, I'm going to be joined by the Democratic National Committee chair, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. And we're going to talk about the Democratic platforms, amended references to God and Israel, her past comments on Mitt Romney's abortion stance and other issues.

It's going to be a very candid interview and we're going to set the record straight. She's going to set the record straight now that she's had a chance to look back at the DNC, the convention that happened just a couple of days ago. Ten p.m. Eastern. Make sure you join us.

Two, count them, two tornadoes touched ground in New York City today. There is damage. Our crew is there. And at the half hour, a CNN special, a journey to see what people living in the most popular Syrian city are facing day-to-day, where the hospitals are ill- equipped to handle the injury.

"Crisis in Syria: Inside Aleppo," coming up at the half hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I want to show you that tornado we've been talking about, I'm going to show again, the one that touched down in New York City today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that just hit land. That's the Bronx.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So it started out as a cool looking waterspout. Then, a CNN iReporter grabbed his camera and the funnel rolled into the beach and started tearing up houses.

National correspondent Susan Candiotti is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Breezy Point living up to its name this morning when just before 11:00 on Saturday morning, people reported seeing a funnel cloud. It spread through here. This is a private beech club called Breezy Point. A lot of cabanas out here, people don't live in these cabanas. But they usually come out to spend the day at the beach.

Only a few people were there when this happened. Fortunately no injuries, but the cleanup well under way. Minor damage, minor power outages in this area.

As you can see, these guys are already putting some of the debris from those cabanas, some parts of roof, that kind of thing, throwing it in the back of this pickup truck and getting rid of it. But this gentleman over here, Jim Brady (ph), was here when the funnel cloud came through.

You were inside your cabana. What did you see?

JIM BRADY: I was in the cabana. I didn't see anything, but I heard the noise, the intense noise that feels like you're in a wind tunnel, the debris going all over the place. I just laid on the ground, waited it out. Fifteen, 20 seconds later, it was quiet and saw all the debris.

CANDIOTTI: You'll have some cleaning up to do.

BRADY: A little bit.

CANDIOTTI: All right. And, Matthew (ph), you were here as well, but you saw the funnel cloud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Saw it coming from the southwest to the northeast, huge amount of debris flying all over the place, get to live (INAUDIBLE), we don't which way it was going to move. I put it about 60 feet across.

CANDIOTTI: How did you stay out of the way or take cover?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just stood still. To be honest with you, the first instinct is people. You're thinking yourself, my God, people might have got hurt here. So -- it turns out the only, I mean, Greg was injured, but Brady. But it all worked out well.

CANDIOTTI: As someone who lives around, Megan Scott (ph) and he started to clean up right away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: May I tell right away. His name is harry, he comes from Trinidad, and he is a manager here of maintenance and he took instant command of the situation safely. Way to use some leadership, the man was a leader.

CANDIOTTI: So glad to hear it. Thank you so much. As are a lot of people who live around here.

Happy to hear that there are only minor power outages and they hope to get this cleaned up. But, of course, they do have a tornado watch that remains in effect through Saturday night here in the New York metropolitan area.

Susan Candiotti in Breezy Point -- back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Susan, it is a yucky day all up and down the East Coast. Look at his, zero visibility on the National Mall today. And just in the past few minutes, we learned that another funnel cloud spotted in Brooklyn a few hours has been confirmed as a tornado with winds stronger than 100 miles per hour.

Tornado watches are in effect from New Jersey to Connecticut right now.

A single mother has two college degrees, 20 years of work experience and no job. You'll hear about the grim reality she's facing, trying to find work to support her children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A single mother lost her job nine months ago. She's a military veteran with two degrees and 20 years of work experience.

Susan Candiotti has this emotional story from Philadelphia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SABRINA YOUNG, UNEMPLOYED SINGLE MOTHER: What's at the end of a sentence?

UNIDENTIFIED KID: Period.

YOUNG: Right.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Sabrina Young, a former IT manager and single mom, used to look at the victims of the recession and feel lucky she wasn't one of them.

YOUNG: I felt so blessed. I was so glad that I knew what was going on, I was aware of it and I felt very fortunate to have my job.

CANDIOTTI: That was before she became one of the nation's millions who are unemployed.

YOUNG: Right now, we're just -- I can't even say we're making ends meet. We're just staying above water.

CANDIOTTI: It's been nine long months since Young lost her job. She dropped her salary requirements and expanded her search outside of Philadelphia, where she lives with her two sons.

But even with two college degrees and 20 years of experience, the former Air Force vet is still part of a grim reality.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a whopping 14 percent of blacks are unemployed. That's almost twice the 7.2 percent of unemployed whites.

YOUNG: Getting shut down for job interviews takes a toll on you. It takes a toll to get up, brush yourself off, hold your chin up and, okay, you know, put my best face on and let's do this again.

CANDIOTTI: Young comes here to the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, a group that helps Philadelphia's burgeoning population of unemployed.

John Dodds has been with the advocacy group since 1975.

JOHN DODDS, THE PHILADELPHIA PROJECT: We are in a very difficult time for people unemployed. Work is still very hard to find and it's a terrible situation. It's one that we've got to really continue to work at to get people back to work.

CANDIOTTI: Dodds says it's frustrating to face the fact that there's no quick fix.

DODDS: This one is just very severe, you know? We're used to a severe and it ends and people go back to work. But this time, it's ended -- we still have 8 percent unemployment. So it's an ongoing problem and it's getting better way too slow.

CANDIOTTI: Way too slow for young and so many others who cannot wait to get back to work.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: A man's journey across America started three years ago. George Throops is walking thousands of miles across the U.S. He wants to inspire you to change your lifestyle. He just walked into our studio a few minutes ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A 5-year-old is a hero, saving the life of a person most important in her life, her mom.

Olivia Crawford made her mark this week after she found her mom unconscious with blood pouring from her nose. Olivia took charge, figures out how to work her mom's cell phone and calling 911, all while taking care of her brother. I want you to listen to it.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DISPATCHER: Sweetie, are you on the line?

OLIVIA CRAWFORD: Yes.

DISPATCHER: Are you with your mom?

CRAWFORD: Yes.

DISPATCHER: Is she awake at all?

CRAWFORD: No, she's on the ground.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY MCCARTY, EMS SUPERVISOR: The 5-year-old trusted us and she did an absolutely outstanding job of giving us all the information we need to help her mom at the time we may not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: No. Well, I can tell you, mom is now recovering and as for Olivia, she has a new puppy, rescued from the pound -- thank you from mom for rescuing her. Olivia Crawford, making her mark this week.

A man started walking across America three years ago and he's not done yet. His name is George Throop. He walks at least 20 miles a day, rain or shine. He's on a mission to raise awareness about living a healthy lifestyle and so far, he's walked about 4,000 miles since he started his journey in Washington state.

So, George walked over to our studio tonight and she joins us now for a chat.

So, you dedicated this journey to your mom, who passed away at a young age. Tell us about her.

GEORGE THROOP, WALKING THOUSANDS OF MILES ACROSS AMERICA: Well, she was 33 years old. She was a wonderful mother. I was 9 years old at the time. You know, she was a great mother. That being said, she didn't get regular exercise. She -- her diet was so-so.

So that's what I'm walking for now, is to promote an excellent diet, good exercise. And stress management.

LEMON: Yes. And I don't think people realize that just by walking, taking a walk, you can actually help your health by doing that.

What's all this stuff that you have here?

THROOP: Well, underneath here, we have my backpack, this heavy backpack was on my back for 2,200 miles all the way to El Paso.

LEMON: Yes.

THROOP: But then from El Paso now, this has gone into a cart that I push. So there were some pictures of that.

LEMON: You started in September of 2009.

THROOP: I did.

LEMON: I'm sure it's cold some days, hot some days. It's -- yes, there's cart. How did you prepare for this journey? Can you even prepare for this?

THROOP: I prepared mostly mentally, because walking across, it's -- I mean, you need arms and legs that work, but it's 99 percent mental, because there are so many challenges that -- so many barriers that you have to find a way to get through. It's mostly mental.

LEMON: Ever think of giving up when you're out there?

THROOP: There was once in Canyonville, Oregon, that just broke me that day -- blisters, heat, cold, rain, all this. But I sat there, I meditated and eventually I made it through.

LEMON: Yes.

You plan to end your journey at the White House. Why?

THROOP: I do. Well, a number of reasons, but basically Washington to Washington. I lost my mother to cancer prematurely. Barack Obama lost his mother to cancer, as well. And Michelle Obama has her Let's Move campaign. I mean, we're all on the same page when it comes to living healthier lifestyles.

LEMON: So, what do people say when they see you strolling into town? I'm sure you've met a number of people. How do they react to you?

THROOP: You know, typically, Don, the first question I get is, are you really walking across America? And they stare in the eyes to get that authenticity and I stare right back and they're just like, wow, you know? And then I have a bunch of different questions and I always answer them. I used to them by now.

LEMON: So, you lose any weight? You look thin.

THROOP: Not really. I've gained muscle.

LEMON: You have?

THROOP: Yes.

LEMON: And endurance, I'm sure. Good luck to you.

THROOP: Thank you, Don.

LEMON: Thank you for walking.

THROOP: Great meeting you.

LEMON: Yes, great meeting you, George Throop.

All right. So moving on now, people stranded in their cars, they had to be rescued, flash floods. It is scary stuff. I'm going to show you where and the water will rise again this weekend. We'll tell you about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Checking your headlines now:

With 59 days until the election, there's no time to waste for President Obama and Mitt Romney. The president made two stops in Florida, along the I-4 corridor today. The area is home to many of the independent voters that he hopes to win over.

His rival is using the same playbook. Romney is in Virginia today, trying to flip the state back to the GOP column four years after Obama narrowly won it.

The city of Chicago bracing for a possible teacher strike Monday that would impact 400,000 students and about 700 schools. Chicago teachers union is angry over working conditions and the discontinuation of annual pay increases. The city plans to open 144 sites to provide services for students if a strike does occur.

LEMON: Look at these streets, flooded in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa, yesterday and today. It is monsoon time in Arizona. And this is the biggest storm of the season so far.

Officials pulled stranded people out of cars and brought them to safety. Monsoon storms are expected to continue into next week. At least one person has been killed, washed away by the rushing water.

In Pakistan, a 14-year-old Christian girl is back with her father tonight, out on bail a month after her arrest. She was accused of blasphemy when burned pages of the Koran were found in her bag. But police are now saying, they believe a neighborhood cleric planted the evidence. In Pakistan, blasphemy is punishable by death.

Military planes bombarded Aleppo and other parts of Syria today. Opposition groups say at least 163 people were killed. Syria-state run media say the military killed a large number of terrorists. The bloodshed may be still spilling over into Iran. Officials with Iraq's interior ministry say a 4-year-old girl was killed when rockets fired from Syria landed in an Iraqi border town.

LEMON: Next, we go back inside Aleppo for a look at everyday life set against the backdrop of bombs and constant gunfire.

"Crisis in Syria: Inside Aleppo," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Day after day, we see the frightening images of stories of horror coming out of Syria. In the largest city, Aleppo, danger and many times death seem inevitable. And for the next half hour, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh takes us on a journey through Aleppo, where the sounds of gunfire and bombs haunt the streets. And we want to warn you, this program contains extremely graphic and disturbing images that are not appropriate for all viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mortar shells, bullets, bombings, cries of the innocent, screams of agony and anguish. Pleas from the desperate.

It's been more than 18 months since what began as a small protest in Syria's provinces has grown into a few-blown civil war. Members of the international community have called for Syrian President Bashar al Assad to stand down with his military's (INAUDIBLE) of even more vicious attacks against the rebels.. Syrian civilians caught in the crossfire, there is no safe place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The death toll is staggering. The destruction is reaching catastrophic proportions. And the suffering of the people is immense. WALSH: According to the United Nations, more than 18,000 have died with at least 1,600 people killed in just one week.

Here, the deadly shell fire does not discriminate.

With Russia and China strong in their support of the Syrian government, U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton flew to Beijing trying to convince Chinese leaders of the need for international action.

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We believe that the situation in Syria is a threat to peace and stability in the entire region. And the longer the conflict goes on, the greater the risk that it spills over borders and destabilizes neighboring countries.

WALSH: A point not lost on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi who in blunt language demanded President Assad to step down.

PRES. MOHAMMED MORSI, EGYPT (through translator): I would like to tell the Syrian regime, as long as there's still a chance in order to stop the bloodshed, do not take the right decision at the wrong time. The right decision at the wrong time is wrong. And there is no room for arrogance.

WALSH: But for now, Syrians caught in the middle are faced with their own decision, stay and risk death. Or go and risk losing everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 50 kilometers from the border here, a bombing strike that killed more than a dozen people. And it's exactly those type of bombing strikes that are driving people to the border, making them flee. And that was seen here today.

WALSH (voice-over): Hundreds of thousands of people chose to leave, flooding over the border into Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, seeking shelter, hoping for safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of those who you see fleeing are people whose homes no longer exist. They really have nowhere to go. One can only really imagine how difficult of a decision it is for a family to have to make.

WALSH: It's extremely difficult and dangerous for journalists to gain access to Syria for five days because of firsthand glimpse of what it's like for these people whose world has been plunged into this brutal war. The fear and the panic that comes with the unknown. The shock and sadness each death brings. It's the story of one city in a country that's crumbled into the chaos and horror of civil war.

It is the story of unimaginable cruelty and suffering inside Aleppo.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

WALSH: Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and the biggest prize in this savage 18-month war.

We drive in at dusk making our way through streets peppered by trash and shrapnel. Thousands have died since the battle for the city began over a month ago. Aleppo's name used to evoke history, grandeur, vibrant trade. But now it's synonymous with weeks of indiscriminate shelling, and brutality and human suffering. Life here persists but terror is everywhere. Over two million people besieged by their own government.

They say that whoever wins the battle for Aleppo will prevail in this civil war, meaning the fight for every street here is a fight for Syria's future.

Tragedy is so common, though. It rushes towards you. On Aleppo streets, a truck races through traffic. We follow them, because we've seen a man leap inside, carrying a limp little girl in his arms. But perhaps because our car is new, he now rushes towards us for help. (INAUDIBLE) is four.

(INAUDIBLE)

WALSH: Go to the hospital, he says. Guys, she's choking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's happening?

WALSH: She was on the balcony at home when a bullet struck from nowhere, he explains. She's struggling to breathe. A bullet has hit her cheek.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here, here, here.

WALSH: At the hospital, the doctors move to clear her airway. They think she'll live. But this under equipped rebel hospital can't treat her fully. So they make a tough decision to send her across the front line to a better equipped government hospital where we can't go.

This is where the bullet enters her home. Across the street is a cemetery and tall buildings, all inside rebel territory. But snipers work everywhere. This war has left no one safe. The grandmother saw it all.

She was in her mother's lap when it entered here. We saw blood then she grimaced, screamed for mother and then went silent, she says.

(on camera): Given the trajectory of the bullet, it was likely that it was fired from the other side of the cemetery from one of those tall buildings over there. It's unlikely the gunman would have seen his target, but it is an example of what many say here is the horror visited upon normal civilians every day.

(voice-over): The children know what happened. They find a knocked out tooth but not the bullet that hit Renna (ph). They go to visit her, believing the worst is behind them. It is hard to understand why a sniper would fire into a residential home unless to terrify civilians in rebel areas.

Yet the next morning we learned she was taken to two government hospitals. None of the doctors were able to remove the bullet, relatives tell us, which was stuck in her throat. Renna (ph) died. Her body brought home and buried in the cemetery that sat between where the gunman probably fired from and her home.

Aleppo's skyline is often burning, but fear is greater for the people here, because news about what's happening when cell phones don't work and streets are often impassable. So hard to come by. But there is one place where the tales of suffering gather. That's (INAUDIBLE) Hospital.

The moment you arrive here, the scale of devastation is clear. And it's the children who get hit the hardest. Dar Al Sheppa (ph) Hospital is where many in Aleppo run when they're caught by the constant shelling even though the hospital and the area around it have also been fired upon.

(on camera): The shells hit this part of the hospital but still they say we see many civilians flooding here for treatment. Some of them very young, doctors telling us the children's hospital has been closed by the government.

(voice-over): Some terrified, some starving. Mohammed, aged eight, was hit by a shrapnel fired from Syrian regime mortars. He's quiet, brave. But this hospital isn't equipped for the surgery he needs. His thigh bone is shattered. So the doctors have no choice but to send him across the front lines to the government hospital. Hoping perversely that those who hurt him can also heal him.

President Bashar al Assad is history in the minds of locals, but his regime still has the best hospitals, where one doctor works during the day before sneaking here to help this rebel hospital in the evening. He tells me, wanting even his voice hidden, within the regime hospitals, 50 soldiers are brought in every day. But sometimes doctors mercy kill by injection those they can't treat effectively but if they found he was working in the rebel hospital, they would kill him.

Ahmed (ph) has been hit by shrapnel from shelling. His ear almost blown off. They struggle to clean the wound and to find enough anesthetic. At any point, the power would cut. Still, the doctors carry on. It hurts, he cries. But he's yet to learn the worst about what the shelling did. It killed his father, who is mourned just outside the hospital.

The dead here, so many the doctors must leave them on the street. His brother arrives. There's no room for privacy or dignity here. They remove the body before Ahmed (ph) can learn what happened. The blood remains on the street, unnoticed by some. The people of Aleppo, numb, looking to the skies, checking what next may befall them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALSH: Regime forces are concentrated around Aleppo's ancient citadel, the old city around it. Now the frontlines. It's cobbled streets deserted. Its historic mosques hit by rocket-propelled grenades.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you are in the oldest street here.

WALSH: The alleyways are now home to potshots and rubble.

(on camera): A very eerie silence here in some of the most, oldest historic streets in the world. The rebels pushing forward, they say, towards government lines. But also being pushed back. And this almost ghostly atmosphere punctuated occasionally by the sound of shelling in the distance.

(voice-over): What stayed the same for centuries overturned overnight.

The new dead lie next to the old. Aleppo's old city, thousands of years in the making, are tore apart fast. We're with rebel forces as they push into a vital terrain in the fight for Syria's commercial capital, towards a key police station. They mass in number and surge forward.

Chaos, but also bravery. They move to retrieve an injured rebel at the very front. Somehow, the superior regime firepower lets them escape with their wounded.

When we rejoined them a few days later, they have fallen back the 100 feet they gained. Civilians in uniform, they're taking potshots at nothing in particular. Goading their enemy with revolutionary songs, even offering them a number to call if they want to defect. But they can't advance again.

It's not just the regime's bomber jets that hold them back. Up on the roof, we see how snipers, deadly accurate here, can freeze the front lines.

(on camera): In this historic part of the city, the rebels are trying to inch forward, but so often pushed back by government forces. In this case, held back by a government sniper positioned in the buildings opposite us.

(voice-over): Even from the rebel sniper positions, the regime is close but well dug in.

(INAUDIBLE) was a conscript years ago, but is now an electrician. A sniper is shooting at them, and he moves across the road to take aim. But his discipline and marksmanship is the exception. He thinks he got him. It's the older men here who are in charge. Hakim (ph), a local commander briefly visits and tells me his brigade has given up on outside help from the west.

This is our final word, he says. We don't want any help from anybody. We're no longer waiting and we have the means to topple the regime. He outlines a plan for the men. Shortly afterwards, this bus appears. One rebel says they plan to fill it with explosive and tie a prisoner's hands to the wheel and force him to die driving the bus bomb at the regime.

But even though we saw the brigade take prisoners earlier that doesn't happen here and the bus leaves.

A garbage truck arrives instead, which they plan to place down the street as cover for their gunmen.

Preparations build for an operation. Hand made grenades, homemade bombs, highly volatile canisters full of fertilizer explosive.

But the men still lack focus. Shooting in the dark. Later that night, we leave, but they drive a truck down the street. At dawn, it's in place in the old position.

(on camera): Overnight they tried to gain advantage by moving that dump truck about 100 feet down the street, past their last position but still these men have been unable to advance over this incredibly small amount of terrain.

(voice-over): The regime fires grenades setting into light. The rebels decide to fight back. This is an anti-aircraft gun. They seem to prefer noise to accuracy. They run forwards to fire rocket- propelled grenades. There's too much smoke to know what they hit. More gain here but a fight to the death. But this is a city of millions torn apart by every pitched battle every hundred feet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALSH: Finding bread in Aleppo may cost you your life. (INAUDIBLE) bakeries have been hit by shelling so these people go at night because the temperatures are cooler and in some ways, it's safer.

The regime's jets and helicopters can see less then.

Both are scary, he tells me, the shelling and the planes. We leave our homes not knowing if we're coming back. It's indiscriminate. With this much fear in the population, the regime doesn't need to control every inch of the city.

The jets are launched locally, it seems, from the military airport on the outskirts of town which we head towards.

(on camera): We're moving towards Aleppo's main airport. The scene of intense battles over the past few weeks. If the Syrian government lose that, they lose their ability to control the air to supply themselves with fresh munitions and, many think, Aleppo itself.

(voice-over): An edge nearer. The regime positions just over a hundred meters away now.

(on camera): Just ahead of us is the main airport. We can see a regime positioned down there possibly with an armored vehicle. So we're going to move back now.

(voice-over): Dug in again, and far from vulnerable, few think the rebels can overpower regime forces if they retain this advantage in the air. The Free Syrian Army must instead hope their enemy collapses internally. Until then, the air strikes continue.

Dawn in Aleppo brings the clatter of gunfire above. People are hunted by the regime's helicopter gunships. And as dusk nears, it is to the roar of bomber jets. (on camera): It's that sound that terrifies ordinary residents of Aleppo daily. Jets coming in low overhead and never knowing, really, until you hear the blast exactly what their target is.

(voice-over): There seems to be no pattern to the attacks unless they're designed to sow fear among the civilians. A helicopter we heard earlier may have fired the rockets that hit this house. It's fathers and neighbors here frantically coordinating the rescue. Hands and shovels inside a building that could still collapse onto them.

(on camera): They say the air strike came in about four hours ago, but, still, they're racing frantically to free nine people still stuck under that rubble., including father and child.

Throughout, also, the fear the helicopter could strike again. They find the first body. The little girl is lifeless. The blanket providing little dignity. Near her, moments later, they find her father's body.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I swear to god we've been destroyed, this woman screams. I swear to god Bashar al Assad is killing us.

WALSH (voice-over): Then, at the hospital, where more bodies from the rubble are brought, the toll of the missile becomes clear. Five, later nine children aged from four to 11 from the same extended family. In all, 11 people died. Then, a brief respite from the carnage. One lone survivor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (through translator): God is great. Bashar is a dog. God willing, he'll witness Assad's death.

WALSH: They say Hussein (ph) survived because when the rockets hit he was feeding from the breast of his mother, Nadja (ph). She was crushed under the rubble and killed but her body protected him. A year old, he was born into Syria's bloody revolution and may yet survive it still.

In Aleppo, they will continue to have to dig. Most dawns bringing shelling and another dose of similar humanity.

For now, the rebels will struggle to prevail over a better-equipped, remorseless Syrian military. Unless the regime somehow collapses from within, they will continue to punish Aleppo civilians. The only crime of so many of them to live in rebel areas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reporting. We'll continue to follow the story at CNN and CNN International.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. "CNN PRESENTS: FOOTNOTES OF 9/11" begins right now.