Aleppo, Syria – When Abdallah Abu Jarrah was 13 years old, he dreamed of becoming an engineer or lawyer.
But his hometown of Aleppo was under siege by Syrian regime forces supported by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.
“The situation was terrible with bombings, beatings and murders,” the now 21-year-old told Al Jazeera. “I remember the massacres, the regime’s killings and attacks on bakeries and hospitals.”
Eight years later, a series of images went viral on social media. Young people expelled by the regime in 2016 returned as fighters to liberate the city of Aleppo. The side-by-side photos showed children boarding buses in one photo. In the next photo they are young men smiling broadly, wearing military uniforms and carrying rifles.
On December 22, 2016, a four-year battle between regime forces and their allies against the opposition ended with the evacuation of thousands of opposition forces from eastern Aleppo in buses.
War crimes were commonplace.
The Assad regime besieged opposition areas containing thousands of civilians, while the Russian air force bombed hospitals and bakeries. According to the United Nations, the regime used internationally banned chlorine bombs, killing hundreds.
The UN reported in November 2016, a month before the end of the battle, that there were no functioning hospitals in eastern Aleppo.
“The brutality and intensity of the fighting has never been seen before,” said Elia Ayoub, an author and researcher who covered the fall of Aleppo.
The United Nations also criticized opposition groups for indiscriminately shelling civilian areas “to terrorize civilian populations” and for firing on civilians to deter them from leaving the areas.
By 2016, at least 35,000 people had died and much of the city had been destroyed – most of which still lies in ruins eight years later. At least 18 percent of the dead were children.
“I thought we would never come back,” Abu Jarrah told Al Jazeera.
Capital of the Syrian Revolution
When a peaceful uprising calling for reform broke out in Syria in 2011, Assad responded with brutal force. The opposition took up arms and challenged the regime across the country.
The regime relied on foreign intervention. Hezbollah and Iran joined the fight in 2013, and Russian intervention in late 2015, ostensibly to counter ISIL (ISIS), pushed back the opposition.
“Symbolically, Aleppo was the capital of the revolution,” Ayoub said. “Its downfall was preceded by other cities and it was the final nail in the coffin of the rebellion at the time.”
The city remained under regime control for almost eight years. Many who fled Aleppo moved to Idlib in northwestern Syria and crowded into displacement camps, where they faced years of airstrikes by the regime and its allies.
In November, opposition fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army launched an operation to retake Aleppo.
Among the things in their favor was that the Syrian army was perhaps weaker than ever and its allies were busy fighting their own battles – Russia in Ukraine and Iran and Hezbollah with Israel.
“I felt human again”
On November 30, the Syrian opposition entered Aleppo for the first time in eight years and quickly took control of the city.
Among the returning fighters was Abu Jarrah, who had joined a faction of the Free Syrian Army when he was about 16 years old.
“I felt human again,” he told Al Jazeera as his eyes lit up in front of the city’s historic citadel, dressed in military fatigues decorated with Syria’s green, white and black flag and three red stars. “Today is an indescribable joy.”
Not far away stood Abu Abdelaziz, another Free Syrian Army fighter who had fled the city at the age of 17. He was wearing fatigues, a black face mask with a skull on the front and carrying a rifle.
“They forced us to leave, expelled us and cursed us and we returned to where we grew up, where we spent our childhood with our friends and at school,” he said. “It’s a great feeling of great joy. You can’t measure it.”
Abu Abdelaziz said the first thing he did after liberating the city was to visit his old school.
“When I was young, I wanted to be a heart doctor,” said the now 24-year-old fighter. However, the war took a heavy toll on him. His family was killed and his home in Aleppo destroyed. Nevertheless, he said he wanted to stay in Aleppo and become a doctor.
“Now, God willing, I will finish my studies,” he said.
“We will build this country together”
Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and historically one of the most economically important cities in the Middle East. Hittites, Assyrians, Arabs, Mongols, Mamelukes and Ottomans ruled it before it became part of modern Syria. Before the civil war, it was Syria’s industrial and financial capital.
Parts of Aleppo have largely fallen into disrepair. Locals told Al Jazeera that the regime had stopped investing in the city before the war. But very little of the damage from the fighting from 2012 to 2016 has been repaired. Even its crown jewel, the Citadel of Aleppo, was badly damaged and fell into disrepair. From the foot of the citadel, the buildings destroyed by air raids are still visible today.
Even in the Rif – or outskirts – of the city, entire neighborhoods are completely deserted. Collapsed roofs and crumbling facades lie behind empty ponds, while wild dogs roam the ghost towns.
Now that the war is over, the city’s returned fighters hope to trade their weapons to help rebuild their city.
“When a field of study opens up, I want to complete my studies,” Abu Jarrah said. “And we will build this country together.”
