Middle East Journal | Syria | Sep 2024
After ISIS
'After ISIS' is a photo journal I put together whilst travelling through Syria in September 2024. In this series, the images show various people and places that suffered during or as a result of the fight against the terrorist group or opposition forces. Some areas visited in the photographs where occupied by ISIS whilst others saw fighting with the Syrian army or other armed factions operating within the country. The series stands to illustrate the long lasting destruction caused by the Islamic State and rebels, and paired with international sanctions and severe devaluation of the Syrian Pound, how the country is struggling to recover since their defeat in 2019.
The Journey starts in Aleppo in northern Syria. The city before the start of the war in 2011 was the commercial capital of Syria. From 2012 to 2016, the city endured unimaginable violence which resulted in over half the buildings being damaged or destroyed and many thousands of civilians killed. The fighting was primarily between Assad's forces and the opposition, the Syrian National Army (SNA), with various parts of the city controlled by different factions at different stages in the conflict, including some areas by the Islamic State.
Much of the city was damaged or destroyed during the airstrikes carried out by the Syrian and Russian air forces to remove the opposition forces. Much of the rubble still sits to this day and bullet holes cover most walls.
Many residents of Aleppo live in buildings that have a degree of damage, some severely damaged or half destroyed. Walking around the city it is not uncommon to see some families in buildings that have no running water or electricity, and walls and windows missing or destroyed. One man in the city, Ahmed, pictured above, stands in front of his building block that he and his wife still live in, he explains how most of his neighbors have left for other parts of the country, Turkey or Europe. Since they left, the building have remained the same since the fighting stopped, and the city has 'lost its life and people' Ahmed says.
Despite the destruction and lack of infrastructure inside the city, the Syrian people are resilient. In the shops and souks under destroyed buildings business persists, with many bakeries, fruit stands, clothes shops and coffee stands back to operating as they did before the war. Although power cuts are common, many business owners do not let this trouble them, and continue to operate without electricity. Pictured above is a butchers not far from the city centre under a destroyed apartment block. The butchers son has just killed the sheep and is preparing it by removing its feet and skin.
In parts of the city some efforts are being made in the reconstruction of certain sites. Various mosques and churches have been restored or rebuilt and have received some foreign funding. In an area just outside the once busy souk, a group of men work in the midday heat to clear rubble where an artillery strike had hit years before. The cost of clearing up has been a major drawback due to the state of the Syrian economy.
One man who was working on the clear up could speak English and told me that this area used to be teaming full of tourists, both from Syria and abroad, with many people coming to sell all kinds of goods. He recalls when he was a child he would come here with his friends and try and snatch some sweets. Ever since 2011 the souks have been almost empty with only a handful of businesses returning.
From the Citadel, the ancient centre of the city, the destruction can be seen in the buildings surrounding it. Plenty of children play around the the grounds with bike rentals and sweet stands at the base of the rubble, with people in the cafes and restaurants nearby.
Aleppo came back under government control, or was liberated as some put it, in December 2016 after a failed counteroffensive by rebel forces. The government regained control of all areas of the city and in 2020, the countryside was free of all pockets of ISIS. Around the city many shop shutters have the Syrian flag painted on them to show solidarity with the government and Assads face can be seen virtually everywhere around the city.
I travelled south of Aleppo to the city of Homs, the third largest city in Syria. Homs saw heavy fighting also with opposition rebels and later ISIS within the region, up to 50% of the city was destroyed whilst the rebels held the city. The city was sieged by government forces between 2011 and 2014 and finally came back under its control in 2015. The picture above shows a father and son after leaving the newly renovated Khaled Ibn Al-Walid Mosque in central Homs which was damaged during the siege. The funding for the repairs for the mosque came from Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, Russia.
Destruction can be seen all throughout the centre of Homs. Most buildings have at least bullet holes.
During the siege food became scarce, and aid was poorly distributed and abused. One man tells me some resorted to killing and eating street cats to stay alive. Before the war the population of Homs was about 1.7 million, as of today it is around 700,000, in some areas neighborhoods are completely abandoned. The picture above was taken from a bus at a busy roundabout near the centre, damages from the conflict become daily sights and businesses and people rebuilt their lives around them.
Part of an abandoned neighborhood in Homs.
The next stop was the ancient city of Palmyra, south central Syria. Getting here was not easy and took hours travelling through the desert to reach it. Palmyra suffered two brutal occupations of ISIS, first in 2015 and secondly in 2016 to 2017 before being pushed back into the desert by Russian and Syrian forces. During the occupation the ancient city suffered irreparable damage, and the modern city of Palmyra remains mostly destroyed. Driving through the desert on the main road to the city, numerous Syrian military checkpoints block the route every few kilometers, and tanks and outposts, usually decorated with Syrian flags and Assads face, can be seen all throughout the landscape. Pictured above is the remains of a destroyed ISIS tank that would have come from Iraq. Many others can be seen throughout the desert.
Virtually all streets in Palmyra are lined with rubble and artillery damage. There is a large Russian military presence in the city and surrounding areas to this day, with the occasional Russian flag flying on military outposts within the city. I am told by a local that pockets of ISIS in the desert are still only a hundred kilometers or so east and is the reason for the increased security. Above you can here the humming of a Russian drone carrying out surveillance of the area. Cyrillic letters can be seen painted on many buildings.
Many children play on the bullet ridden streets of Palmyra, with local infrastructure such as schools destroyed, football or riding bikes with their friends fill up the days. The children I met were intrigued by my camera and wanted all of their photographs taken and invited me to kick a ball around with them. Some of the younger children would have been born after the occupations, and have grown up only knowing the destroyed city.
The ancient city in Palmyra was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world. It is thought that the city appeared around 2000 BC and became an important caravan stop and trading post along the silk road. The Romans also built on Palmyra, which connected the roman Mediterranean with Mesopotamia. The site of the ancient city contained many temples and ancient buildings, many of which were destroyed by the Islamic State during their occupation. The temple of Bel is one of the most famous ancient temples in the world, closely related to the ruins in Baalbek, Lebanon, which was used to worship the Mesopotamian god 'Baal', closely related to the Babylonian god Bel-Marduk. Pictured above is a child herding sheep behind the ruins of the amphitheater.
The Temple of Bel was used to worship the god 'Baal', it had many features such as towers, shrines, dining halls and monuments. Although some of the temple, such as parts of the walls and columns survived, much of the temple was destroyed by ISIS in search for undiscovered treasures. Whilst under ISIS control, they publicly beheaded Khaled al-Asaad, the 82 year old archeologist and head of antiquities after he refused to reveal the location of some artifacts. The central part of the temple to this day lies as a pile of bricks and rubble from the destruction the group inflicted.
Pictured above is an ancient stone used in the temple after demolition with writing by ISIS on it along the lines of 'Don't shoot without permission'. ISIS used the temple for various purposes including target practice. The picture below the stone shows a metal plate with bullet holes, this would have been used by the group for target shooting. Many empty bullet casings can be found in the rubble and around the site.
Before the war started, Palmyra used to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in Syria, with thousands coming each year to see the roman ruins and ancient city. Hotels and restaurants could be found all over Palmyra and remnants of the tourist industry can still be seen, above is an old sign for a hotel situated right next to the ancient ruins. Like many other things in Palmyra it is covered in bullet holes.
The museum of Palmyra sits next to the entrance of the ancient city, today it is closed to the public and virtually empty with only a few remaining artifacts. Inside are a couple of remaining workers of the museum who watch over what is left, the building itself was damaged during the fighting with artillery hitting the roof. During the occupation under the Islamic State, the artifacts were raided to sell to raise money or destroyed as they depicted gods and humans from before Islam, pictured above, one of the museum workers walks past the beheaded ancient statues excavated from the city. This Museum would have been popular among tourists before the war.
Many Roman artifacts which depicted humans had their heads destroyed by ISIS. The hadith prohibits picturing living things in Islam, and due to the groups extreme interpretation, countless pieces of art have been destroyed. One of the museum workers tells me how when ISIS took control of Palmyra they raided the museum and removed many of the small artifacts that could be sold easily. The heavier stone carvings left behind by the romans were smashed with hammers and rifle butts to remove the faces, such as this piece.
The walls of the museum are left bare showing the places were smaller artifacts, mosaics, tablets and paintings would have once been on display. The museum worker explains how some of these pieces may have ended up in private collections in places such as europe and the United States. Very few have ever been recovered.
Mohammad, a local guide in the museum holding a book dating back to the early 2000s before the war, the book shows the ancient city before ISIS destroyed it, on this page, one of the temples with multiple pillars used to stand. The books and photographs left in the museum show what Palmyra was like before the destruction. Mohammad tells me of the great sadness it has brought to the people of the city and how their culture has been destroyed along with their source of income from tourists.
Across the road from the museum, the remains of a popular tourists restaurant once the best in the town, sits in ruins after being bombed and used as a military outpost. Smashed plates litter the inside of the building and barbed wire surround its garden,
All throughout the country, reconstruction efforts are being made, some buildings are being repaired whilst some buildings are built new in place of destroyed ones. It becomes noticeable however the number of unfinished building sites scattered through every village, town and city. Many projects start but come to a halt as they run short of funding, either through difficulties in finding materials due to international sanctions or from corruption and theft of funds. One site I ventured onto, the reconstruction of a tall apartment building damaged by fighting, had only one man working on it, the construction had been slow over multiple years due to trouble sourcing materials.
Maaloula is a small town north of Damascus with a majority Christian population. Maaloula is home to some of the oldest churches in the world, with their inhabitants still speaking Aramaic, the language Jesus Christ spoke. Before the war Maaloula was have been visited by both tourists and religious pilgrims. A statue of the Virgin Mary can be seen standing above the town on the cliffs. In 2013, the Islamic State came to Maaloula and occupied it, persecuting the Christians and Aramaic speakers who lived there, many fled and have never returned. It was in 2014 that the town was liberated from ISIS by the Syrian Government which control it now.
Inside the Church of Saints Sergios and Bacchos, located on top of the mountain in Maaloula, services can still be heard in Aramaic. During the occupation, ISIS stripped the church of almost all of the Icons and paintings and destroyed them, some dating back almost 2000 years. Only a few small icons survived and still sit on the wall. Pictured above are prints of the large icons that used to decorate the altar, as the icons were destroyed when the group stormed the church. Many of the pieces were destroyed by slashing with knives to remove all faces.
The Saffeer Hotel is next to the church, once a popular spot for the tourists staying in Maaloula with a view of the town and surrounding desert, is now fenced off with serious damage from the war. the Islamic State used the hotel during their occupation as a local base, housing fighters. When the Syrian Army came to liberate the town the hotel saw many attacks targeting the group, ultimately leaving it in ruins. Although there have been plans to rebuild it to promote people to return to the area, 10 years on it still stands as a reminder of the violence Maaloula saw.
Barbed wire encompass the ruins, with a single security guard sitting out the front.
Travelling through Syria, its hard to find anywhere that hasn't been touched in some way by the conflict, the road from Damascus, past Homs and Hama to Aleppo is a showcase of the brutality of the ongoing conflict, with town after town, village after village destroyed and left abandoned. I came close to the city of Idlib, which is currently being held by Syrian opposition forces, backed by the West and Turkey. Foreign interests have played a massive role in the conflict in Syria, leading many Syrians to refuse that it is a civil war, and more of a proxy war between greater powers. With the territorial defeat of ISIS in 2019, it only removed one player in the war, and many groups continue to seek the removal of Assad from power. Russia and Iran have been key backers of Assad's government, with their militaries spread throughout the country to help the Syrian military, they are also some of their biggest trading partners. The Syrian economy has taken a severe hit ever since the war began in 2011, with sanctions imposed by the west, the Syrian Pound has gone from 50 to 14,000 against the US dollar, in turn this inflation, paired with rampant corruption has hindered a lot of the reconstruction of the country. Whilst major powers influence different factions in Syria, the conflict is likely to remain at a stalemate like it has done for many years now in some parts, and with the rising threat of a wider regional war after October the 7th attacks in 2023, and the ground invasion of Israel into Lebanon, It is unlikely that Syria will see a change any time in the near future, and potentially drawn into another conflict. During my time in Damascus, Israeli airstrikes hit the city targeting Iranian and Hezbollah individuals.