Aleppo, Syria -Abdallah Abu Jarrah was 13 years old, he dreamed of becoming an engineer or a lawyer.
But his home city of Aleppo was besieged by the Syrian army, supported by Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.
“The situation was very bad with bombings, beatings and killings,” the now 21-year-old told Al Jazeera. “I remember the government killings, the killings, and the attacks on bakeries and hospitals.”
Eight years later, several photos went viral on social media. The youth, who were displaced by the government in 2016, returned as fighters to liberate the city of Aleppo. Side-by-side photos show children riding buses in one photo. In the next picture, there are young men with big smiles, wearing military fatigues and holding guns.
On December 22, 2016, the four-year war that pitted government forces and their allies against the opposition ended with the expulsion of thousands of opposition groups from East Aleppo on buses.
War crimes were everywhere.
The al-Assad regime surrounded the opposition areas, which were home to thousands of people, while the Russian army bombed hospitals and bakeries. The government used chlorine bombs banned worldwide, according to the United Nations, to kill hundreds.
The UN reported in November 2016, a month before the end of the war, that East Aleppo had no functioning hospitals.
“The story and intensity of the war has not been seen,” said Elia Ayoub, a writer and researcher who has written about the fall of Aleppo.
The UN also criticized the opposition groups for firing on civilian areas indiscriminately “to threaten civilians” and shooting at civilians to try to prevent them from leaving the areas.
About 35,000 people died and much of the city was destroyed by 2016 – many of which are still in ruins eight years later. About 18 percent of the dead were children.
“I thought we would never come back,” Abu Jarrah told Al Jazeera.
The capital of the Syrian Revolution
When a peaceful uprising began in Syria in 2011, al-Assad responded with brutality. The protesters took up arms and protested the government around the country.
The regime relied on foreign intervention. Hezbollah and Iran joined the war in 2013 and Russia's intervention in late 2015, ostensibly to fight ISIL (ISIS), pushed back the opposition.
“Symbolically, Aleppo was a terrorist capital,” Ayoub said. “Its fall was before other cities and it was the last nail in the coffin of the revolutionaries at that time.”
The city will be under government control for about eight years. Many of those who fled Aleppo moved to Idlib in northwestern Syria and settled in refugee camps, where they were persecuted for years by the government and its allies.
In November, opposition fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian Army launched an operation to capture Aleppo.
Among the things that were in their favor was that the Syrian Army was weaker than it was before and their allies were busy with their wars – Russia in Ukraine and Iran and Hezbollah and Israel.
'I felt human again'
On November 30, Syrian rebels re-entered Aleppo for the first time in eight years and quickly captured the city.
One of the fighters was Abu Jarrah, who joined the Free Syrian Army when he was about 16 years old.
“I felt like a man again,” he told Al Jazeera, his eyes shining outside the city's palace, wearing military fatigues emblazoned with the green, white and black Syrian flag, and three red stars. Today is an incredible joy.
Standing nearby is Abu Abdelaziz, a Free Syrian Army soldier who fled the city when he was 17. He wore fatigues with a black face mask with a skull emblazoned on the front, and carried a gun.
He said: “They forced us to leave, kicked us out and cursed us and we returned to where we grew up, where we spent our childhood with our friends and school,” he said. “It's a great joy. You can't measure it.”
Abu Abdelaziz said the first thing he did after being released from the city was to visit his old school.
“When I was young I wanted to be a cardiologist,” the now 24-year-old veteran said. However, the war took a toll on him. His family was killed and his house in Aleppo was destroyed. However, he said, he wants to stay in Aleppo and become a doctor.
“Now, God willing, I will finish my education,” he said.
'We will build this country together'
Aleppo is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities and historically one of the most important economic cities in the Middle East. The Hittites, Assyrians, Arabs, Mongols, Mamelukes and Ottomans all ruled it before it became part of modern Syria. Before the civil war, it was the industrial and financial center of Syria.
Parts of Aleppo have been severely damaged. Locals told Al Jazeera that even before the war, the government stopped investing in the city. But little damage from the war from 2012 to 2016 has been repaired. Even its jewel, The Citadel of Aleppo, was badly damaged and left to rot. Buildings destroyed by airstrikes are still visible from below the Citadel today.
Even on the edge of the city – or on the edge of it – all areas were abandoned. Fallen roofs and cracked doors rest behind empty pools as wild dogs roam the ghost towns.
When the war is over, the soldiers returning to the city hope to sell their guns to help rebuild their city.
“If the scholarship is open I want to complete my studies,” said Abu Jarrah. “And we will build this country together.”