Syrian and Russian forces have fought for years to bring Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, under Assad’s full control, causing widespread destruction.
advertiseAfter the sudden fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, residents of Aleppo have been reflecting on the horrors endured by them and the city under Assad’s control.
The Assad regime is a brutal dictatorship that has caused massive destruction and destruction to Syria’s second-largest city.
Russia supports Assad’s regime and its warplanes have been bombing the rebel-held city of Aleppo for months.
Hundreds of thousands have been killed in indiscriminate bombings, while the country’s economic collapse has plunged much of the population into famine and drug trafficking is rampant.
Millions of Syrian refugees, most of whom live in neighboring countries, suffer poverty, legal instability and growing calls for their deportation.
Dr. Obeid Diab, 84, was forced to flee his home after Aleppo was bombed.
“They’ll attack indiscriminately. Jets will fly over, bombs will drop. They’ll fall, whether the wind blows here or there, you just don’t know. Is there a specific target? I don’t know.” Come on The idea is that they just hit and leave,” Dr. Diab said.
Many people Dr Diab knew were killed in these attacks, including his nine-year-old niece, who he buried with his bare hands along with many other neighbor children.
“We had to bury children with our bare hands. First of all, the children from the neighborhood. Among them was my niece, very young, nine years old. She was dead. Who can say anything?”
Countless others also disappeared into the regime’s brutal prison system, where they suffered lifelong torture and even death.
Ali, an Aleppo resident, said he was arrested and jailed on baseless charges.
“Assad’s criminal army came in and put us in jail, claiming we belonged to an armed group,” he said.
Now finally back home, Ali said he had stayed at his home in eastern Aleppo during the 2016 siege and after that when regime militias took control of the area.
With Assad in exile in Russia, the country’s new authorities are investigating atrocities committed by Assad’s forces, mass graves and a series of prisons run by the army, intelligence and security agencies that have been blamed for systematic torture, mass executions and brutal Notorious conditions.
While the future remains unclear, for many Syrians, Assad’s fall brings hope for the first time.
