From Aleppo in ruins to a tank cemetery in Deir ez-Zor: Syria seven months after Assad’s fall

Just yesterday, the United States announced it's revoking the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The group, known as HTS, was once linked to al-Qaeda and toppled Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad late last year. In May, the U.S. president announced the lifting of sanctions on the country. Donald Trump even met with Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, the former head of HTS. To discuss the situation in Syria today, we can bring in France 24's Waseem Nasser, who was recently in the country. Waseem, great to see you. Let's start off with Aleppo. This is a multicultural city heavily destroyed during the war. What's it like now? Well, actually, when you go, you take the road, since I went into from Turkey towards Aleppo, you notice the road which was closed until lately. So here's the map on the areas that I visited. But first, let's see the videos that I shot from the border till the town of Aleppo. And you see, for example, that many villages that were deserted by their inhabitants are seeing their own people coming back. And this is, for example, one of the towns on the road to Aleppo and to the neighborhood of Rashidin. And you see this destruction. But you also see that people are trying to reconstruct, you see, reconstruction in the middle of rubble in this area. And I went, I crossed through two villages, through Shia villages, Nubbur and Al-Zahraa, and I noticed that there is a huge security disposal for them, like protecting them. And what's particular about Aleppo, as you said, many communities in Aleppo, is that the new authorities are succeeding in protecting the minorities better than dealing with the problems amongst the majority, the Sunni majorities. Those are the silos of Aleppo. Why? Because some people of the Sunni majority were with the regime till the battle of Aleppo. And when the battle of Aleppo occurred, there was a group called Liwa al-Baqir, a Sunni group, meaning, but loyal to the regime, that took in the HHS commandos in his own area and also turned the tide against the regime. And today, those people are thinking that they are not being rewarded as they should. So the friction inside the Sunni community between those who were with the regime or against the regime is much more important in the area of Aleppo than with other minorities. And also, you have the exception of the two neighborhoods that are still held by the Yepege, meaning the Kurdish factions, because I saw that even if there's, like, common checkpoints on the entrances of those neighborhoods, inside the neighborhood is still the Yepege, which makes the rules. Now, Manbij, the city, is east of Aleppo. So it was under Kurdish control until the regime fell. What is happening there? Well, actually, I got access to Manbij. The security situation is very, very critical. And here we see on the road to Manbij, this is the town of Tadif. Also, inhabitants are coming back to Tadif, which is notable, because it was deserted when it was under Kurdish control. And all the way to Manbij, and we're going to see on other footage, there are fortifications made by the Yepege, meaning tunnels here on both sides of the roads, and also, like, military fortifications, we're going to see after this, in order to shoot at anyone who takes this road. So this road was closed. And here is what I'm talking about. And when the regime fell, actually, rebel factions entered the city. The city was looted. But there was a security vacuum during four months, you know. And those are also tunnels that I filmed, but tunnels big enough to where you can get a car inside of it. So there are tunnels made by the Yepege in order to protect, to defend, actually, their position in this town, knowing that this town, the Manbij town, was a stronghold of the Islamic State and then a stronghold of the Yepege. So this is to be taken into consideration. And when you see that, when you see the level of destruction and of fortification, sorry, in this town, you understand what could be pending in other areas. So here is, in the middle of a neighborhood, in the town, you see tunnels that are dug by the Yepege, which are filled today by inhabitants with anything just to fill the tunnel. And I also got to visit, this is the military hospital of Manbij, which was the headquarters of the Islamic State, then the headquarters of Yepege. And you will see that the tunnel is inside of the hospital. We're going to see it in a while. So here it is. The guy is, like, showing the tunnel, which is, like, closed. And then we're going to see another tunnel, which is behind a door, actually. And I got the first access to this site. Nobody got access to this site before, not any journalists. And here we go inside the hospital. And here, as you can see, behind the door, another tunnel. So the area was really fortified. And actually, those who dug those tunnels were the Arab inhabitants. So when the tide changed, they showed the rebels where the tunnels were. And the Yepege fighters, Kurdish fighters, were stuck inside of them. And Manbij has a big problem, which can be seen also in its private university. I have footage of the private university, also headquarters of the Islamic State, then of the Yepege, totally destroyed. But I knew that the owner of this university is trying also to reconstruct. And here, as you can see, he started to take off the rubble in this spot. Now, you also traveled to the capital, Damascus, but you went through Homs. I went through Homs, which is also a mix of communities. There, Homs has a big problem. We know for sure, for example, that almost 60 Alawite women were kidnapped in the last months. We know that there is assassinations on daily basis. And I got to understand that whenever there is like a huge social media campaigns, meaning we found this guy, he used to work for the regime, etc., etc., they were killed later. So the new authorities are trying, for example, there was a commemoration of the Hula Massacre in 2012 done by the Assad militias. So they went and they captured, they caught everybody who was involved. It's a way also to judge them, but also a way to prevent avenging and killing, random killings of those people. I also, this is Homs, you see, as you can see, it is also very much destroyed. And I went to Damascus. When I arrived to Damascus, this was the day when the church of Marlias was attacked by a suicide bomber. And we're going to see the footage. Here's the church from inside, like burned. And in a while you see the hole in the ground. You will understand how big was actually the explosion and the explosive that was worn by the suicide bomber. So here's the hole in the ground. And we know that there were many casualties. And actually there was a big misunderstanding around this happening. And it went exactly the way the Islamic State would have wanted it to go. Meaning when some representatives of the government came to talk to the priest and they told him anything will be compensated. It's an Arab way to say, no worry, things will go better. So the priest responded, you as Muslims make 20 kids. We make two kids. And it was really seen as sectarian by the Muslim majority saying we liberated the country and this is how you are thanking us. And it was it was really a moment of tension on all levels because nobody knew exactly how to tackle the situation. Interesting. Now, next, you let's talk about Palmyra, because this is, of course, a city which was taken by ISIS twice. It's famous for those Roman ruins. We remember it was transformed into a military facility for both the Russians and the Iranians as well. Exactly. And we're going to see how it went into actually Palmyra. We go through the through the Badia, the desert area. The Islamic State is still present on both sides. This footage is to show you that the burned cars, the burned trucks on both sides, tires on both sides and the road, which is really in a bad, bad, bad situation. And actually, this is the will go next to the military airport. And then I got footage from the Badia. We stopped for a while. You can see a burned tank. I don't know if it was burned when fighting was occurring with the Islamic State or during the latest latest fighting. This is what I'm talking about, 45 degrees in this desert. I also filmed the train, the rails of the train, because it's a very rich area, actually. There's mines of phosphate in this area. And it's an economic hub for of resources for the Syrian state. So it's a dangerous area, but also an area full with resources. And then the desert in the middle of the desert, you see the palmyra of Palmyra, you know, the trees, the palm trees. Here they are. And it is like something like a like a mirage coming out of the desert. And then you see the archaeological town of Palmyra. We got footage also of it. And eventually I saw actually a bus with United Nations employees checking the site. It's a beautiful site. It's a beautiful it's a beautiful site. And it's well preserved regarding it was bombed by the Russians and the Baal Shemite temple was was destroyed by ISIS. But still, the site is very much well preserved. But the problem is with the town of Tadmur. The name of Palmyra is Tadmur in Arabic. And here is the town, which, as you said, was transformed into military barracks. And for the people of this area, Palmyra and Tadmur is also the prison of Tadmur, because there's a notorious prison there, like the prison of Sayyid Naya. And we think that maybe the regime did it on purpose, like on archaeological and religious sites like Sayyid Naya, Christian sites, there was prisons, notorious prisons, meaning he was making people who visited those areas like accomplices of what was happening on those on those on those sites. Now, finally, Deir Ezzor was ravaged during the war, and you were one of the first foreign journalists to gain access to it. Yes, exactly. I got to have access to Deir Ezzor, the town of Deir Ezzor. What is stunning on the way is the number of trucks, the number of Iraqi trucks on the on their way to Damascus and to other areas in Syria. This is Iraqi help, actually. Iraq is helping the new government to settle. And what we saw, what I saw also is like a cemetery of tanks. Maybe we'll see the footage. And it shows you how hard were the battles actually in this in this in this area. And anyways, let's go into Deir Ezzor and we'll see the destruction inside the town of Deir Ezzor. We are talking about a town destroyed more than 90 percent. Inhabitants today are 154,000. Eleven thousand came back. And you see among the rubble, people are trying to fix their apartments, as you can as you can see. And in a way to to to have an apartment is very costly today in Deir Ezzor, because a small part of the town is still can be inhabited. The government is getting electricity back. And we I saw mosques which are on the ground. We have footage of mosques on the ground that we can see. This is one of the biggest mosques in Deir Ezzor. And at the same time, churches are also on the ground. So you have the mix between this destroyed churches and destroyed mosques in this town, knowing that the governor appointed by Damascus, his wife is Armenian, meaning Christian, and her family is Christian. And I want to show you the bridges which are all destroyed in Deir Ezzor. The area had seven bridges. One of the bridges is known as the French Bridge, which was constructed by France in the 1920s. Maybe we'll get to see the bridges. And here is the bridge, the bridge of rubble, which is the only functioning bridge between the areas held today by the government and the areas held by the YPG. And we are going to see how people cross the river on barks like trucks. Here you go. They cross. This is the only way to make heavy crossings between the two sides of the river. And I got to know, for example, that people who are handling this are also not happy with bridges being repaired because it's resources, it's income for them. And I got to spend some time also on the river. We'll get to see footage because people are still trying to live. And here cafes are open. You can see people and you'll see music and how life is coming back to the Euphrates. As you remember, this area witnessed huge fighting between the Islamic State, Shia militias coming all the way from Pakistan, the Syrian army, the bombing of the coalition, the bombing of the Russians. But still people are trying to come back and rebuild and people are trying to rebuild despite all the poverty and despite all the security problems, at least to get to Deir Ezzor, at least to get to Deir Ezzor. And this is the final image that we would like to show you. A floating cafe. Thank you, Waseem, for ending on that glimmer of hope there. I mean, as you took us through all the spots you visited, a lot of destruction, a lot of devastation, a lot of poverty, but there is hope. There is hope. Thank you.