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Flattened ... Homs, Syria, in 2013. TWO years of brutal civil war have left the once-proud Syrian city of Homs a shattereMJI d wasteland. Hundreds of bombs, shells and bullets have flattened it, destroying shops, homes, mosques and even hospitals. |
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Deserted ... Grozny, Russia, 1995 Parts of the city are left resembling famous images of war-torn cities like Grozny, Sarajevo and even Hiroshima. Thousands have fled the fighting between leader Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels. After a month-long offensive, government troops drove insurgents from a central district of Homs, a key city in the battle for Syria. |
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Destroyed ... Hiroshima in 1945 It is a crossroads linking Damascus in the south and the Mediterranean to the west. And the province of Homs runs to the borders of Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan. A Syrian army officer said yesterday “security” had been restored to the area. But UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said skirmishes in Homs were continuing. |
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Wreckage ... Sarajevo in 1996 A statement from the group said: “Regime forces are bombarding parts, and military reinforcements are arriving as advancing regime forces try to establish full control.” The UN says more than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad began two years ago. The Free Syrian Army’s military leader General Salim Idris has called for the West to send weapons to his rebel troops. |
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Before the carnage ... the bustling, prosperous city of Homs in 2011 |