Story highlights
Syria's civil war began in 2011
The tide turned in Aleppo when Russian air power began helping the regime
In 2012, Aleppo was well into its fourth millennium. It was Syria’s economic hub, its most populous city and a tourist attraction drawing thousands of visitors to its UNESCO World Heritage sites, including a 12th century mosque and 13th century citadel.
But the spread of the rebellion against the rule of Bashar al-Assad would soon engulf the city in what was billed as – and what turned out to be – the mother of all battles.
In July 2012, as the Free Syrian Army built up manpower for an assault on Aleppo, the West worried. The US State Department said it was concerned about a “massacre;” the British feared a “devastating loss of civilian life and a humanitarian disaster.”
Within weeks, some parts of Aleppo were complete battle zones.
Food prices quadrupled, no one was working. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Power failures began.
Returning to the city where he had lived and raised a daughter in her earliest years, CNN’s Ben Wedeman wrote: “What we saw during our trips in Aleppo were not images of the city I knew: The shelling, the snipers, the destruction. I never imagined this city would be standing in the middle of warfare. Nobody imagined it would turn into this.”
Toward the end of 2012, the rebels controlled most of Aleppo. Already, one key hospital had been destroyed by airstrikes – a harbinger of what was to come with attack after condemned attack on medical facilities.
Those who had fled Aleppo and those who had stayed were hungry, cold and hurting.
Under siege, under attack
And that became “life” in Aleppo – with death at every turn. Some neighborhoods stood, others were destroyed. Punishing air raids ebbed and flowed. But the attacks went on and on. Hundreds were killed in a week at the end of 2013. A doctor said he had simply “lost count” of the number of amputations he’d had to do to try to save lives.
More people fled, leaving behind homes, histories and memories.
