Published On 15 Dec 2024
Damascus, Syria – Nizar al-Madani, 34, stood with tears in his eyes as he looked around Qaboun.
After seven years of displacement, he returned on Tuesday to his neighbourhood in Syria’s capital, Damascus, only to find it levelled.
“We’d heard that the regime demolished the neighbourhood, but seeing it with my own eyes was utterly shocking,” he said.
When al-Madani and his family were displaced from Qaboun in 2017, many of the neighbourhood’s buildings were damaged.
“But today, there is no trace of these buildings… The regime has obliterated the neighbourhood’s features.”
He was not the only one who came out to Qaboun to see what was left after the regime of Bashar al-Assad fell.
Several residents of Qaboun who had also fled for their lives are walking around, trying to figure out where their houses could have been.
Revenge and destruction
The al-Assad regime would deliberately destroy areas that rose against him after regaining control, employing various laws to legitimise that.
Chief among these was Law No. 10 of 2018, whic