During the summer of 2012, after more than a year of conflict, the bloodiest battle reached Aleppo and Syria’s largest city became a stronghold for the revolutionary forces. The battle for the conquest of the city became a real massacre: every day the revolutionary fighters, armed only with Kalashnikovs and other small arms faced the loyalist army with its tanks and aircraft.
Media coverage of the Syrian conflict does not do justice to what has been happening there for the last two years. Unlike Libya, the lack of oil resources and the games of the Great Powers make the international community a spectator as a people seeking democracy face off against their authoritarian President and his army.
According to the United Nations, more than 60,000 people have died to date in Syria’s 22-month-long civil war. The photos were taken between October and November, 2012, in Syria. During these months, I lived with the Free Syrian Army fighters, reporting the brutal reality of this conflict. My images try to describe the cruelty of war and its effect on the civilian population.
A Free Syrian Army (FSA) sniper looks through a hole in the wall at the Syrian army positions, in the Karmal Jabal neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo.
A Free Syrian Army fighter prepares to shoot a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) against President Assad's forces, in the Old City district of Aleppo.
A rebel fighter fires his Kalashnikov while his comrade loads his weapon on the rooftop of house during fighting against Syrian government forces, in the Bab el-Adid district in Aleppo.
Syrian men rescue a person who was trapped in the rubble of the Nur al-Shuhada mosque after it was shelled by forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the Shaar district of Aleppo.
A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to hospital following an attack by regime forces in the northern city of Aleppo.
A Syrian man looks at the body of a man lying in a truck outside a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo.
Syrian rebels observe as a comrade prepares to throw a homemade grenade towards an army position, in the Al-Amariya district of the northern city of Aleppo.
The reflection of a rebel fighter seen in a mirror used to spot Syrian government forces' position, in an Old City district of Aleppo.
A Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter carries his wounded companion wounded to the Dar al-Shifa hospital, in the northern city of Aleppo.
A woman embraces her child at the Dar al-Shifa Hospital in Aleppo. The child was wounded by fragments of a mortar launched by President Assad al-Bashar's forces.
A father of a Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighter mourns the death of his son, killed during the clashes in the northern city of Aleppo.
Smoke billows after shelling by Syrian regime forces in the Shaar neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo.
A Syrian woman is evacuated after being wounded in shelling by President Bashar al-Assad forces, in the Shaar neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo.
Syrian civilians escape from a battle that broke out between Free Syrian Army and the President Bashar al-Assad forces, in the Old City district of Aleppo.
An elderly woman carrying grocery bags crosses a street next to a long black cloth used to protect the area from Syrian government sniper fire, in the Bab el-Adid district in Aleppo.