(The identity of the reporter has been withheld for security reasons) * Assad set on controlling Aleppo to protect Alawite coast * Syria fragmenting into Alawite, Islamist and Kurdish areas * Civilians escaping barrel bombs face violence, alienation ALEPPO, Syria, March 25 (Reuters) - Aleppo is central to President Bashar al-Assad's goal of rescuing a viable state from the ruins of Syria; "We told them every shell (they fire) equals five barrel bombs," said Amar, a local policeman in the city, who argued that any civilians hit by the highly destructive improvised ******* deserved it for tolerating "terrorists".