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Drone footage shows the devastating affect of war

Drone footage shows ‘apocalyptic scenes’ of Syria.

Syria 24 jan. 2016: This is the devastating affect of war..

Homs after war, destroyed buildings, lonely children

Homs, is a city in western Syria . It is 501 metres above sea level and is located 162 kilometres north of Damascus. Located on the Orontes River, Homs is also the central link between the interior cities and the Mediterranean coast.

Previous to the Syrian war, Homs was a major industrial centre, and with a population of at least 652,609 people in 2004, it was the third largest city in Syria after Aleppo to the north and the capital Damascus to the south. Its population reflects Syria’s general religious diversity, composed mostly of Arabic-speaking Sunni Muslims andAlawite and Christian minorities. There are a number of historic mosques and churches in the city, and it is close to the Krak des Chevaliers castle, a world heritage site.

Homs did not emerge into the historical record until the 1st century BCE at the time of the Seleucids. It later became the capital of a kingdom ruled by the Emesani dynasty who gave the city its name. Originally a center of worship for the sun god El-Gabal, it later gained importance in Christianity under the Byzantines. Homs was conquered by the Muslims in the 7th-century and made capital of a district that bore its current name. Throughout the Islamic era, Muslim dynasties contending for control of Syria sought after Homs due to the city’s strategic position in the area. Homs began to decline under the Ottomans and only in the 19th century did the city regain its economic importance when its cotton industry boomed. During French Mandate rule, the city became a center of insurrection and, after independence in 1946, a center of Baathist resistance to the first Syrian governments.

In the ongoing Syrian civil war, Homs became an opposition stronghold and the Syrian government launched a military assault against the city in May 2011. The fighting has left much of the city completely destroyed and thousands dead.

In December 2015, the last rebel forces withdrew from Homs as per a UN mediated ceasefire.

Photo credit: FreedomHouse via Foter.com / CC BY

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