Residents Return to Devastated Syrian City of Homs

Former residents and shop owners of the devastated Syrian city of Homs were finally able to return in the past two weeks. Earlier, Syrian rebel fighters and the pro-government forces came to an agreement last week, and rebels have left the former stronghold city.

About 2,000 rebel fighters who were hunkered down in the old city of Homs, which is now largely piles of rubble, have evacuated. They have been there for about two years.

The devastated Syrian city of Homs used to be known as the “capital of the revolution.”

Many of those who returned to Homs had lived or owned shops there, which were destroyed. They have vowed to pick up the pieces and rebuild.

Thousands of former residents of Homs have been working their way back to the devastated city after hearing the news of the rebels’ exit. In other Syrian cities, the three-year-old war continues.

The Syrian civil war has taken an awful toll on the country and Homs as a city in particular. Buildings have been badly destroyed by bullet fire, shelling, aerial bombardment, bombings, and neglect.

The surrender is widely seen as a victory for President Bashar Assad, who will have a presidential election in just weeks ahead of a June 3 election. He is widely expected to win the election and, along with it, a mandate to continue the bloody crackdown on rebels in the Syrian civil war.

According to activists, more than 150,000 people have been killed in the war.

Homs is the third-largest city in Syria, and was devastated in the past two years. It is uninhabitable for the most part, but former Syrian residents are making plans to move back to the city.

“It’s not much, just a few small things,” Rafi Sepechian told the Los Angeles Times as he and his wife brought home several chairs, a floral print, and a suitcase full of odds and ends from their former flat in the Old City. “It’s badly damaged, but we plan to rebuild. We love our home.”

Assad’s troops have been blockading the neighborhoods of the city for over a year as his troops have pummeled strongholds of the rebels. The government now has control of the city’s old quarters again.

An air convoy with aid was delivered to other destroyed cities in the northern part of the country where two villages have been beleaguered by the opposition. The last few hundred rebels left the devastated Syrian city last week.