Syria's 'capital of revolution' now a ghost

Destroyed buildings are seen in the old city of Homs.

Two years after the last Syrian rebels left the besieged Old City of Homs, voices echo through the shells of bombed-out buildings, their upper floors tilted at odd angles as though frozen in time.
"There is no danger here, because there isn't anybody," a soldier said as gunfire rang out in the distance. "No gunmen, not a soul, not even animals, nothing. Only concrete."
Some 1,200 rebels and civilians, many of them wounded and starving from a yearlong siege, withdrew from the last remaining strongholds in the ancient heart of Homs in May 2014, surrendering to President Bashar Assad a bloodstained city once dubbed the "capital of the revolution."
The return of nearly all of Syria's third largest city to government control dealt a painful blow to the uprising, which began with mostly peaceful protests in March 2011 before a harsh government crackdown and an ensuing insurgency plunged the country into civil war.
At one point, rebels controlled nearly 70 per cent of Homs, which had a prewar population of 1.2 million. But a government counteroffensive and heavy fighting pulverized much of the city, and the siege eventually starved the opposition out.
The return of Homs allowed government forces to solidify their presence in central Syria, linking the capital, Damascus, to strongholds on the Mediterranean coast. It soon became a staging ground for advances farther north. For days after the siege ended, many families returned to check on their homes, gazing bewildered at the sprawling ruins and taking pictures of the destruction. Few elected to stay.
Soldiers still patrol the streets, some of which have green grass sprouting up through the rubble while others are still coated in chalk-white ash. Many are lined with the carcasses of burnt-out cars. Entire neighbourhoods are without shops, electricity or running water.
A monumental reconstruction effort would be needed to rebuild the city, but it's unlikely to begin before the end of the war. A recent ceasefire has brought respite, but no one expects the conflict to end anytime soon.

• MENA