BEIRUT, Dec 3 — Aleppo had been slowly recovering from the wounds inflicted by more than a decade of civil war when forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad fled last week’s rebel onslaught.
Apart from a few northern districts, most of the city — much of which had been devastated in the conflict — is now in the hands of Islamist-led rebels opposed to Assad.
Here is how Aleppo has suffered since the civil war erupted in 2011, when Syria’s former economic and cultural capital had an estimated population of two million people.
Wary Christians
When the uprising began against Assad, there were about 200,000 Christians, including 50,000 ethnic Armenians, living in Aleppo, where the majority are Muslims. But that figure has since fallen to 30,000 Christians, a third of them Armenian, according to sources within the community.
The arrival last week of the radical rebels, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), caused huge concern among Christians in the city. HTS representatives have been to a convent and a hospital run by Christians in a bid to assure them of their safety, the community sources said.
Divided and devastated
Aleppo was an early venue for demonstrations against Assad in 2011 that turned into the civil war. By July 2012, the Syrian Free Army had taken half of the city.
For four years, Aleppo was divided between a loyalist sector in the west — with most of the population — and rebels in a small zone in the east.
The Syrian regime was accused of dropping “barrel bombs” from helicopters and other aircraft onto rebel areas. The insurgents fired rockets into government territory.
Russia came to Assad’s assistance in September 2015, helping government forces to lay siege to the rebel zone by cutting off its last supply route.
Government forces reclaimed complete control of the city on December 22, 2016 when a final convoy of rebels and civilians left eastern Aleppo.
Heritage collapse
A key stop on the Silk Route between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia, Aleppo is one of the world’s oldest cities, dating back to 4,000 BC.
As a manufacturing centre, it was still the second most important city in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.
Aleppo’s old city was declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1986. With the civil war raging, it was added to UNESCO’s endangered list in 2013.
The damage to the city has been widespread.
Part of Aleppo’s ancient ramparts collapsed in July 2015. The minaret on the Great Mosque of Aleppo was also destroyed.
The Aleppo souk, with its 4,000 traders, was nearly burned down but has been partially rebuilt.
Aleppo’s traditional music, Al-Qudoud al-Halabiya, is on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. Performed at religious and entertainment events, it is often heard in the alleyways of the Old City. — AFP
