I grew up in Aleppo. I haven’t visited my childhood home in the western part of the city since 2011. When I reported from Aleppo’s rebel-held east between 2012 and 2014, the fighters I saw were disorganized and poorly equipped. It’s clear they are now better trained, well-armed, and coordinated — they even have drones — and the opposition has a sophisticated media strategy. (Al-Jolani’s instructions were released in Arabic and English, punctuated with an em-dash.)
People in Aleppo are scared. The relative calm since 2016 wasn’t easy — power cuts, hyperinflation, warlords to bribe — but it wasn’t war. Property values started ticking up. With a new army now sweeping in, the best hope is for rebels to show restraint and for the Syrian government, Russia, and Iran to avoid bombing the half of the city they haven’t already destroyed.
Watching videos of fighters and “citizen journalists/propagandists” brought back memories. I remembered being swarmed by children and teenagers during my time reporting. Syria was in a population boom then, and the government a few years earlier was urging people to have fewer kids. Are today’s fighters the children who fled barrel bombs, spent a decade in tents and cramped housing, and now return to reclaim their homes?
Then a video popped up in my feed, likely from the 2016 evacuation of Aleppo. A boy, not older than 12, said: “It’s true we are leaving Aleppo, but when we are bigger, we will come back and liberate it. God willing, me and my brothers will liberate it.”
The questions now are endless. Will Aleppo endure more destruction? Is this part of a larger shift, driven by weakened Iranian militias or Turkish ambitions to resettle Syrian refugees? What are Biden’s options, and Trump’s? Does it matter if Aleppo is ruled by Assad-Iran-Hezbollah-Russia or former Al Qaeda affiliates and Syrian rebels?
And for me, personally: Will my parents ever safely return to the home and lives they left behind?
