Among the ruins

gallery-image A crammed cell in the prison in Al-Hasakah. Many former Islamic State men kept here suffer from physical and mental health issues.
gallery-image Leyla Telo, a Yazidi, was captured, enslaved and sold eight times by Islamic state.
gallery-image US troops on a highway in Al-Hasakah. There are at least 600 American soldiers still in Syria.
gallery-image A Yazidi camp at Sharya, near Duhok town in Northern Iraq
gallery-image Women fighters of the Kurdish militia guarding their training centre near Qamishli.
gallery-image A worker in a small-scale oil refinery near Gire Kire village.
gallery-image A woman in Al-Hol camp trying to cover her face with a vegetable basket.
gallery-image A boy at Al-Hol camp. The children in the overcrowded camp suffer from infections.
gallery-image Women in Al-Hol camp collecting diesel ration. Inmates of the camp get food and essentials as part of humanitarian assistance.

Syria, once the cradle of civilisations, is now a giant graveyard. Years of war have destroyed most of its ancient sites, killed lakhs of people, and displaced half of its population. Citadels, monasteries, mosques and markets that withstood invasions for centuries have been reduced to heaps of rubble. Syrians not only have lost their past, but are looking at a grim future