Baby carriages replace pickup trucks in Syria's Palmyra

In the war-ravaged streets of the ancient oasis city of Palmyra, people could hardly walk without stumbling across the piles of debris, rocks and burnt concrete to get to their homes, or what is left of them.

After the army succeeded to recapture Palmyra late last month, residents who had fled the city ahead, or during, the invasion of the Islamic State (IS) group, started recently returning to the city to see what had befallen their homes and history.

With most of the houses were either destroyed or plundered, the residents could do nothing but to see what was left of their memories and belongings to take it with them back to their displacement.

No car or bus could enter the city's wrecked alleys, to not get a flat tyre, or get blown up by any hidden mine.

The spectacle of people dragging baby carriages overloaded with stuff was seen in every street in that hard-hit city, making any visitor curious where did they get those carriages from.

"The people here usually have many kids, and because they were relived financially ahead of the crisis, they would get new carriage for each of their babies and that's why you could find many carriages in each home," Muhammad, a resident of Palmyra, Yasser, told Xinhua while dragging his carriage away with blankets and some of his kids toys on it.

Samir, another resident, told Xinhua that "there are no cars in the city yet that's why whoever has a baby carriage uses it to carry his belongings instead of just dragging them because the buses by which we came cannot enter each ally."

"We know how difficult it is to move our stuff out, and to be honest most of the homes were either destroyed or plundered, but thank God the carriages were still in place, and that's a good thing because using those carriage came in handy for us," Samir said.

At the entrances of the city, any visitor can find tens of carriages left on the sidewalk for any new comer to use.

A 45-year-old woman from Palmyra also came to take her stuff, bringing along two carriages dragged by her two nieces.

"The buses park on a main street in the city and we go to the homes and get our stuff on our own. There is nothing to carry our stuff on except the carriages," she said, urging the officials to be quick in rehabilitating the city for people to return to their homes.

In Palmyra, which was one of the main tourist attraction in Syria, entire building blocs were reduced to the ground. Hotels burnt with their facades punctuated with bullet holes, in a sign of the intense battles that had raged in that city.

Shocked people wandered the eerily empty streets with pancaked buildings on the sides and maimed streets, dragging their stuffs back to the buses, hoping to get back soon to resettle.

Fatima said she had left Palmyra when the IS entered the city last May, heading to the nearby city of Homs to stay there in a camp for internally displaced people.

"We have been living in a shelter in Homs for 10 months, and I returned today to see my home, which I extremely miss. I have been dreaming of my house for the last months and I really wish the city could soon be fixed for us to return," Fatima told Xinhua, while waiting other Palmyrans to return to the buses after finishing of moving their stuff.

Governor of Homs, Talal al-Barazi, stressed earlier this month that services facilities and infrastructure have sustained severe damage in Palmyra, blaming the terrorist attacks for the damage that befell the city.

Restoring services may take several weeks, the repair work will continue in order to help displaced people return back to their homes, said al-Barazi.

Palmyra contains monumental ruins of a great city that was once one of the world's most important cultural centers.

Before the onset of the Syria crisis five years ago, Syria, endowed with prehistoric Greek, Byzantine and Islamic heritage, used to attract numerous multinational archaeological missions seeking new clues and investigating historical facts concerning the development of civilizations.

Source: XINHUA