‘They used us as a testing ground for all kinds of weapons’: Syrians return to destroyed town

For miles, the bleached ribcages of bombed-out buildings on either side of the main highway north of Damascus flick past as you drive – a grim monument to some of the fiercest battles that took place between Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels at the start of the revolution more than a decade ago.

None of the residents of Jobar – once a revolutionary heartland – were able to return to or rebuild their homes as Syria’s civil war rolled on, even after the regime retook control.

Now, after Assad’s stunning defeat, families, some of whom returned from fleeing the country, pick through the dust-choked rubble of what was once their homes. They gather at Jobar’s chewed-up central graveyard to host the first funeral here in 13 years.