One week ago, Al-Sharina and his children returned to their former home in the town of Hajin, on the Euphrates River in eastern Syria. A coalition of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Kurdish soldiers and Arab tribesmen liberated Hajin from the so-called Islamic State in December.
In the process, nearly every building in Hajin’s centre was damaged or destroyed. “Life was hard under ISIS,” said Al-Sharina, a man in his forties. “But it’s still hard, harder still with this destruction.” The back wall of his house has been completely demolished, and the front pocked with bullets. Every window in the house has been blown out.
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Before ISIS came, Al-Sharina made a living trading livestock in this verdant and remote corner of Syria. He and his family fled soon after ISIS charged into town in 2014. What followed were years of moving from one camp for the displaced to another, from one relative’s house to another.
His children haven’t been to school in seven years, he told me. Now they are helping him clear away the rubble and repair damage to make the family home habitable again.
Source: As ISIS shrinks, Syrians return home and discover a wasteland
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