Picking up the pieces: Syria begins clear-up at Palestinian refugee camp after fighting ends

A man stands amid the rubble as the Syrian regime begins to clear the wreckage at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the capital Damascus.

The built-up residential area was once home to around 160,000 residents – both Palestinian refugees from the 1948 conflict overd Israel’s creation and middle-class Syrians.

Government forces hit back with a siege and relentless shelling after Syrian rebels seized the district in 2012.Fighting then broke out among various armed groups.

Islamic State militants seized control in 2015, before being driven out in a government offensive earlier this year.