The agony of rising from ruins

A labourer working to repair the walls of the famous Citadel in Aleppo, Syria. The city of Aleppo and its surrounding province experienced extensive damage through years of heavy fighting. — Nicole Tung/The New York Times

IN Syria, the destruction from 13 years of war has become part of the landscape. There is barely a town or city undamaged or a community untouched in the spraw­ling country of 23 million.

In the main cities like Damascus, the capital, entire neighbourhoods and suburbs were pulverised as dictator Bashar Assad and Russia and Iran, his allies, sought to crush an armed rebellion that emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring ­uprising.