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Ancient Aleppo city ravaged by conflict

Reporter: Xu Dezhi 丨 CCTV.com

07-18-2016 17:28 BJT

Aleppo came under renewed rebel bombardment last week after the Syrian army severed the rebel's supply route.

Led by Syrian army officer, we passed check points and finally arrived in the ancient city of Aleppo which is considered among six world heritage sites in Syria.

The city used to be an important trading center with 12th to 16th architecture buildings. Syrian army and rebels including oppositions and terrorist groups have made Aleppo a frontline in the present conflict.

We are supposed to cross some streets to get to the citadel of Aleppo, but as you can see, there's actually no streets. So, we have to climb up the building, to cross between buildings on relics and then go to the other streets.

The city is split into two parts: One is controlled by the government and the other by rebels. Thousands of residents fled away but not all have left. As the escalation seen in different frontlines in Aleppo, the ancient city also recorded small confrontation in the past few days.

On 10th July, the Syrian army foiled an attack by rebels through a tunnel in the ancient city. We can still see explosion remains near the tunnel entrance. Rocket relics were everywhere. We went through an abandoned marketplace and reached the end of our visit: The Aleppo Citadel.

Now, we have reached our furthest point of this journey, the citadel of Aleppo. I have to remind everybody that this is actually a frontline. And behind this road, it's the coverage of the snipers of the rebels. So we cannot risk our lives there. And also this is a World Heritage. As you can see, the damage of the external gate was there. It's been destroyed in 2012 during the crisis.

The ongoing conflict in Aleppo is so complicated and appears that hard times will remain for the distant future.

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