On Location: Life and Death in Aleppo (VIDEO)

ALEPPO, Syria — Their names were Issa, Ahmed and Sheik Mahmoud Qasim. They were fathers and brothers. They were students, teachers and laborers.

And, last week, they were all killed by tank fire.

They are not alone. The Syrian conflict has now dragged on for 18 months and cost the lives of tens of thousands of people. The dead represent all kinds — civilians, rebel fighters, regime soldiers and officials, aid workers, activists, journalists.

More from GlobalPost: Complete coverage from Inside Syria

Headlines that track the numbers of dead are easy to pass over when they are so frequent. But sometimes a moment is captured that communicates the tragedy of events in a way that is impossible to ignore, or forget.

In this On Location video, GlobalPost senior correspondent Tracey Shelton tells the story of Issa, Ahmed and Qasim in the days before, and then at the very moment, they are killed in their back-alley post on the front lines of Aleppo, Syria.