Syrian and Russian forces have fought for years to bring Syria’s second city, Aleppo, under Bashar al-Assad’s full control, causing widespread devastation.
After the sudden fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, residents of Aleppo are remembering the horrors inflicted on them and their city.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in indiscriminate bombings, while the country’s economic collapse has plunged most of its population into famine and fueled drug trafficking.
Millions of Syrian refugees, most of whom are in neighboring countries, also suffer from insecurity and hostility from a part of the local population who demand their expulsion.
Regular bombings on Aleppo
Dr. Obeid Diab, 84 years old, was forced to flee his home during bombing of Aleppo.
“They were hitting indiscriminately. The jets were flying over and the bombs were falling. They were just falling, and the wind was blowing them here and there.”he says. “They would hit and they would just go away.”.
Many people that Dr. Diab knew were killed in these attacks, including his nine-year-old niece whom he buried with his bare hands, along with many other children from the neighborhood.
“We had to bury the children with our bare hands. First of all, there were the children of this neighborhood. Among them, there was my niece, this little one, she was nine years old. She died. What- what can we say?”declares Obeid Diab.
A brutal dictatorial regime
Furthermore, countless Syrians have disappeared into the regime’s brutal prison system, sentenced to torture or death.
Ali, a resident of Aleppo, says he was arrested and imprisoned on unfounded accusations.
“Bashar al-Assad’s criminal army intervened and took us to prison, under the pretext that we were affiliated with armed groups”he says.
Now back home, Ali says he stayed in his house in eastern Aleppo throughout the siege in 2016 and as long as he could afterwards, when regime militias controlled the area. .
Bashar al-Assad being in exile in Russia, the country’s new authorities are investigating atrocities committed during his regime : mass graves, prisons run by the military, intelligence services and security agencies, known for their systematic torture and mass executions.
Although the future is still uncertain, for many Syrians the fall of Bashar al-Assad has brought hope for the first time in a long time.
