‘Nobody was spared’: Damascus suburbs still haunted by Assad regime’s chemical attacks
The Ghouta area east of Damascus witnessed some of the most vicious and sustained fighting of the Syrian civil war, including deadly chemical weapons attacks launched by ousted strongman Bashar al-Assad's regime. FRANCE 24 reporters visited Ghouta’s bombed-out ruins and spoke to residents haunted by the horror they endured.
Residents of Jubar, a Ghouta suburb on the eastern edge of Damascus, were among the first to rise up against the Assad regime as the Arab Spring swept across the region more than a decade ago.
Jubar was bombed, besieged and starved by regime forces for five long years, until rebel troops retreated from Ghouta.
But for the civilian population, the nightmare continued. Tens of thousands were detained by Assad’s forces, many of them disappearing without a trace.
“Nobody was spared,” says Ayham El Zaw, whose father vanished after his arrest.
“There isn’t a single house where they didn’t kill someone,” he says, standing amid the ruins of Jubar, now a ghost town that was home to a prewar population of 250,000.
“Fathers, mothers, young people – all died under torture,” El Zaw adds. “Many were killed by chemical weapons, many children.”
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