Vanessa Beeley
21st Century Wire
The Old City in East Aleppo was fully liberated just before the 12th December 2016. The terrorist and militant factions led by Nusra Front, aka Al Qaeda, whose black flags hung from the walls of the ancient Umayyed Mosque until they were torn down by the victorious Syrian Arab Army and allies.
In this video below, we walk through the ancient souk that has been burnt many times by the terrorists, in an attempt to completely destroy this ancient cultural icon for the Syrian people. We are escorted by the SAA, as are all media and journalists on the various frontlines across Syria. In fact, during our time in the Old City that had only been fully liberated, less than 24 hours before we were there, we learned that some militants had hidden in the basement of one of the houses and the SAA were dispatched to capture them.
This video conveys the horrifying extent of the destruction of this ancient heritage site, once the bustling commercial centre in Aleppo brimming with history and people, now a shattered ghost town bearing the scars of four years of intense street fighting and terrorist tunnels, detonated to destroy the historic buildings.
Watch this dramatic video:
The recorded poem was given to 21WIRE by a college-age Syrian student, recorded on Christmas Eve 2016.
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