After years of displacement, Aleppo residents finally return home

ALEPPO, SYRIA - DEC. 9, 2024: Following years of exile and loss, Aleppo residents are finally coming back to their devastated homes, seeking to restore what was taken. "When I left Aleppo, my daughter was just a year old. This year, she is preparing for her middle school exams," said one of those residents Yaser Shehade. "This is my first time here since then. My feelings are complicated—joy, sadness, and fear all at once. But the happiness is overwhelming, and I hope our joy will be complete when all of Syria is liberated, Allah willing," she told. Footage on Monday, Dec. 9, just two days after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime, shows some families, who were once compelled to flee, now returning homes. Another resident who came back to the Aleppo after 13 years voiced his relief over the regime’s withdrawal from the city center. Ebu Mutaz also noted that some of his relatives who had sought refuge in Türkiye also started to return. After a period of relative calm, clashes between Assad regime forces and anti-regime groups reignited on Nov. 27 in rural areas west of Aleppo, a major city in northern Syria. Over 10 days, opposition forces launched a lightning offensive, capturing key cities and then, on Sunday, the capital Damascus. The rapid advance, supported by defecting military units, led to the collapse of the Assad regime after 13 years of civil war. Assad and his family fled to Moscow where Russia granted them asylum.(Footage by Kinene Hindevi /Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)