The destruction of Aleppo after five years of fighting

A UNOSAT analysis of satellite imagery of Aleppo gives us a glimpse at the scale of destruction that has besieged Syria’s largest city. The analysis compares the total number of buildings found in pre-conflict imagery collected in 2009 with an image acquired on Sept. 18, when the rebel-held eastern portion of the city was under heavy siege, to determine the percentage of damage across the city.

The analysis found 35,722 damaged structures, which represents a dramatic increase of 154 percent from the previous analysis completed in May 2015. The extent of the heaviest damage closely follows the areas of control established in 2012, when rebels invaded and effectively divided the city between opposition areas in the east and government-controlled ones in the west. However, with Russian air support that began in October 2015, Assad’s forces were able to cut through these front lines by controlling the northern portion of the city along Castello Road in July. Rebel-held areas in east Aleppo slowly shrank to a small section in the south. On Dec. 22 the government announced that it had retaken Aleppo.

Some of the harder hit neighborhoods

The analysis found that the neighborhood of Al Aqabeh, in the Old City, had the highest count, with 65 percent of its residential buildings damaged. The neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Rasafeh also have a high concentration of damage, not only owing to their location just south of Castello Road but also because they are predominantly inhabited by Kurds, who have clashed with rebel forces throughout the conflict in the city.

The Sha’ar neighborhood was home to Bana Al-Abed, a 7-year-old girl who gave the world a glimpse of what life was like in the eastern portion of the city. She evacuated as the city fell under Assad’s control and was seen Wednesday meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The final evacuations from the remaining rebel foothold in the city near Al-Ameria and As-Sukkari are underway. The Turkish foreign minister said 37,500 people had been evacuated.         

Going forward, still much to be resolved

Even though the retaking of Aleppo represents Assad’s greatest victory in the nearly five-year-long quagmire, the conflict is far from over. The rebels still control large areas of countryside in northwest and south Syria, as well as relatively urban pockets of territory around Damascus and Homs.

The Islamic State now controls roughly a third of the eastern part of the country, a sparsely populated area. And while much attention was focused on Aleppo, the militants recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra. Syrian Kurds are now governing a big area in the north that Assad has said he wants to reclaim.  While the four factions inside the Syrian borders continued to grapple for control, Russia, Turkey and Iran held a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday seeking cooperation or some resolution to the war.