Residents of Aleppo return to their ruined, unrecognisable homes
“It’s that red building,” he says as he walks through the devastated streets of eastern Aleppo, seized by the army on Thursday.
Just hours after the last remaining rebels and civilians left the city on Thursday evening, he is returning to his neighbourhood of Zebdiye to find scenes of destruction.
Like thousands of others who fled to the regime-held west of Syria’s second city in 2012, it is the first time he has seen his house in four years. “Snipers were targeting us. Now I feel safe and, thank God, life is back to normal,” Sayyad says. Since 2012, the city has been divided between rebel and regime-held districts, but a devastating regime offensive launched in mid-October saw the rebels ousted from their iconic former stronghold.
In Bustan al-Qasr, a heavily damaged neighbourhood near Aleppo’s famed Old City, yellow bulldozers remove the barricades that used to separate regime-held western Aleppo from the rebel-held east.
Hundreds of civilians, wrapped in coats against the bitter cold, walk along muddy roads, some pushing handcarts containing their meagre belongings.
Some struggle to find their homes in the war-torn streets, where children in colourful tracksuits play among the rubble. “I can’t find my shop,” said Abu Abdu, standing in the middle of Zebdiye. “The streets are unrecognisable because of the destruction.” Some windows are smashed in, while others have been walled up with blocks of cement or bags of sand.
A family climbs over a mound of earth to reach the entrance of a building. On the top floor, linen hangs on a balcony, abandoned by the occupants who were probably among those who were evacuated in recent days.