'Living like refugees': Syrians returning from Lebanon find little respite among ruins

Al Salloumieh, as Abdelrezan Al Rai knew it, is gone. So is his house – once a two-storey villa with a garden. It was levelled shortly after he and his family escaped the bombing of his village in 2013 and, with Syria's civil war at full tilt, sought refuge in Lebanon.

Twelve years later, when the Al Rai family returned to their village in Syria's rural Homs, they were greeted by a shattered, concrete wasteland. Only the mosque’s minaret was left standing.

The agricultural village near the Lebanese border was destroyed in an offensive in 2013 by pro-Assad government forces aiming to recapture rebel-held areas. It was one of countless battles in Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, which displaced millions and produced one of the world’s largest refugee crises.

More than a decade later, the rebels won in a startling upset, becoming the country’s de facto rulers, with the Assad regime forced into exile.

Abdelrezan Al Rai stands on the ruins of his home in the village of Al Salloumieh. Ahmad Fallaha/The National

“The whole village was erased,” Abdelrezan said, taking a long drag of his cigarette. He clambered onto a cement boulder – what was once his living room wall – and gestured widely to display the remnants of his home with a mix of pride and despondency. “It was destroyed and looted. When the bombing was over, they [government forces] went in with trucks and bulldozers, and stole everything they could. They took the furniture, the doors, and the aluminium. They took the iron rods out of the cement walls.