Photo Gallery Visiting Assad's Rump State
Homs was once the center of the Syrian revolt and today, about two-thirds of the city is a wasteland. Now, the regime plans to rebuild the city with help from a United Nations program. But can it succeed?
Women standing in line in eastern Aleppo to register with the authorities. After years of fighting and regime bombing, the eastern half of the city lies in ruins. The rebels have now left, but the future is uncertain.
Café Moscow in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia. Protected by the Russians, the war largely left the city unscathed. Russian patrons don't have to pay in the café because the owner is so grateful to them for the "peace" they have brought.
A boy in Aleppo with a stray cat. With the regime having returned to destroyed eastern Aleppo, everyone left claims to have been opposed to the rebel. Those who harbor different viewpoints are either silent or no longer here to tell their stories.
A boy and a dog on the seaside in Latakia. Life here is pretty much the same as it has always been. There is deep poverty in Latakia as well as immense wealth, with new restaurants being built, cafés opening up and parties everywhere.
A few weeks after peaceful protests began in Daraa in March 2011, people flooded into the streets in Homs, where half the population is Sunni. The regime responded with brutality, bringing in tanks and shooting protesters. The city was hotly contested for three years, until the majority of the rebels were allowed to leave in May 2014. Homs has been under Assad's control since then.
