
Only one patch of this Damascus suburb remains mostly intact and operational again: the cemetery.
Majid Ajouz and his uncle went back to washing bodies and burying them here after the regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December and former residents started visiting this ancient neighborhood.
On a recent sunny afternoon, Ajouz dug a fresh grave, and mourners laid a 65-yearold man to rest amid shattered gravestones left by the fighting. Little else remains of the former rebel stronghold, where more than a quartermillion people lived before the civil war began in 2011.
This story is from the February 10, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
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This story is from the February 10, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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