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‘We have lost everything’: Syrians return to ravaged Aleppo

In this Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016 photo, Amina Hamawy cries after she returned to her looted home in the Hanano district of eastern Aleppo, Syria. It's a painful homecoming shared by hundreds of Syrians who are returning to areas devastated by years of war and then retaken from the city's embattled rebels in a recent government offensive. More than 30,000 people have fled Aleppo since the latest government offensive began last month, joining the more than 10 million Syrians -- nearly half the population -- who have fled their homes since the conflict began. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016 photo, Amina Hamawy cries after she returned to her looted home in the Hanano district of eastern Aleppo, Syria. It's a painful homecoming shared by hundreds of Syrians who are returning to areas devastated by years of war and then retaken from the city's embattled rebels in a recent government offensive. More than 30,000 people have fled Aleppo since the latest government offensive began last month, joining the more than 10 million Syrians -- nearly half the population -- who have fled their homes since the conflict began. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) In this Sunday, Dec. 4, 2016 photo, Amina Hamawy cries after she returned to her looted home in the Hanano district of eastern Aleppo, Syria. It's a painful homecoming shared by hundreds of Syrians who are returning to areas devastated by years of war and then retaken from the city's embattled rebels in a recent government offensive. More than 30,000 people have fled Aleppo since the latest government offensive began last month, joining the more than 10 million Syrians -- nearly half the population -- who have fled their homes since the conflict began. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

By Associated Press 3 min read

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) – Amina Hamawy burst into tears and then fainted when she returned to eastern Aleppo to find that looters had ransacked her home. “Where am I? What happened?” she asked after her husband and daughter revived her. “We have lost everything.”

They were among a few hundred residents who fled fighting in the Hanano neighborhood last month and were able to return after government forces drove out Syrian rebels, whose besieged and bombed out enclave in eastern Aleppo has begun to collapse.

After registering with authorities, Hamawy’s family was driven past blackened shells of buildings and mounds of rubble, devastation wrought by more than four years of near-daily airstrikes, including explosives-filled barrels dropped from helicopters.

Their single-story home was still intact, but the television, electrical cables and a large battery that supplied power for the home had been taken, either by retreating rebels, advancing forces or thieves exploiting the chaos.

The looters left the old refrigerator and the washing machine behind. “If it had been a new, fully automatic one they would have stolen it,” said Hamid Malaji, Hamawy’s husband. “The work of decades disappeared in a few hours.”