Truce Comes In Aleppo

Not many may be familiar about the city until photos of child victims surfaced earlier this year. But Aleppo has always been a big part of human history -- from Abraham grazing his sheep to the Hellenic settlement of Alexander the Great, to the role it played in the Crusades, it was among the world's oldest and largest legacies -- "was" being the operative term.

The Battle of Aleppo, which started five years ago and has since caused hundreds and thousands of deaths and millions in displacement, has finally come to an end -- just after citizens took to Twitter their final moments as they accepted that death was upon them.

The famed city, which is noted to be the largest in Syria, has already been destroyed. According to The New Yorker, The Old City has become mere ash and rubble as the destruction can be compared to the Stalingrad and Warsaw Ghetto. Cruel airstrikes escalated over the summer, and Eastern Aleppo, which once stood proud, fell this week, in what is considered as the biggest victory for Assad.

Syrian rebels are now preparing to withdraw from Aleppo after a ceasefire agreement, which was the result of talks between Russia and Turkey. After the guns fell silent late Tuesday, no blasts have been heard, and the Syrian government has established control once again.

However, as BBC reported, despite word of deals and truces came, and military actions over, this may not be the end of the Civil War. Rebels still control large areas, and the war is not yet over. However, it will be of a different kind: it will be more of a hit-and-run kind of insurgence.

Abu Malek al-Shamali, who resides in the rebel area, shared about the dead bodies that lay in the streets. Reuters quoted him as saying, "There are many corpses in Fardous and Bustan al-Qasr with no one to bury them." It may be quiet now, but little of Syria is left, and the environment citizens are left with offers less hope for the future that they are going to face.