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An injured Syrian woman arrives at a field hospital after an air strike hit her home in Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo on 15 August. AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra

IN PICTURES: a year of fighting in Syria

In the midst of the conflict, death and hurt, some rare smiles and moments of joy are captured by some of the world’s bravest photographers.

THE SYRIAN CONFLICT has continued for more than 21 months, escalating into almost-all-out civil war.

About 40,000, including many civilians, have been killed since the uprising against Bashar Assad’s current regime began.

Despite United Nations attempts at a diplomatic and political solution, ceasefires have been ignored and, as fighting continues, the humanitarian situation worsens. More than half a million refugees have been registered or are awaiting registration in the neighbouring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. Numbers are still climbing and the UN has said about 3,000 people per day are being displaced.

Strict rules imposed against journalists and photographers working in Syria has made reporting the events of the conflict difficult for the world’s media but in the last few months, more images of what the Syrian people’s new everyday existence entails have started to emerge.

TheJournal.ie has taken a look at a year which has seen young men taking up arms, bringing violence to the doorsteps of residents struggling to carry out normal activities such as buying food and washing clothes. Many others have left their homes, settling in to temporary refugee camps where children try to go to school and play. In the midst of the conflict, death and hurt, some rare smiles and moments of joy are captured by the world’s bravest photographers. Warning: Some of the images are quite graphic.

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30 Comments
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    Mute peter
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    Dec 29th 2012, 8:52 AM

    Sinead that has really hit home what a war does to a nation & the human suffering is beyond my comprehension. Images 37, 63 & 70 tell the story amazingly. Image 37 will stay with me, it has broke my heart.

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    Mute Strongbow62
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    Dec 29th 2012, 10:30 AM

    Excellent photos

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    Mute Azul
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    Jan 1st 2013, 7:58 PM

    Free Syrian Army rebels ‘behead a Christian and fed him to dogs’ – fears grow over Islamist atrocities

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255103/Syria-rebels-beheaded-Christian-fed-dogs-fears-grow-Islamist-atrocities.html

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    Mute Azul
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    Jan 1st 2013, 8:07 PM
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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 10:00 AM

    Very poignant. Qatar/Turkey/Saudi Arabia/Libya/UK/France/US/NATO have a lot to answer for when they decided to train, arm and finance thousands of religious extremists and send them into Syria to hijack legitimate democratic protests and cause bloody mayhem, all for some petty regional goal.

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    Mute Strongbow62
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    Dec 29th 2012, 10:35 AM

    Are you Assad’s P.A.? You appear to have a strong interest in supporting the regime. Maybe you should go and live there for a while and be the Lord Haw Haw of the middle east.

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    Mute Rebecca De Stanleigh
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    Dec 29th 2012, 10:49 AM

    Actually was in a taxi the other night driven by a Syrian who used to be an engineer. He swore to me on his family’s livlihood that Assad is the good guy and its the rebels who are shelling and killing civilians. I believe him over western media. I think he’s right.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Dec 29th 2012, 11:57 AM

    Rebecca, please don’t be so naive. Of course Assad has supporters that are going to say that Assad is not at fault. You are going to believe one person over all the evidence out there. These pictures are telling you what’s going on.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Dec 29th 2012, 11:58 AM

    B Lowe, I see your still in denial.

    12
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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 12:10 PM

    Declan, don’t be so naive. Look at the photo of the child soldier. Human Rights Watch has documented the use of child soldiers by the so called ‘rebels’ , which are mainly just foreign Islamic jihadists. What have you got to say about FSA using children as soldiers?
    It does show that the elected Syrian government and it’s security forces have managed to kill housings upon thousands of these foreign terrorists and that they are getting so desperate that they use children as soldiers.

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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 12:16 PM

    Strongbow 62. Someone needs to make a standard here. All we are hearing time and time again from Western media sources re Syria is nothing short of Propaganda. When you have major news sources citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights time and time and time again as a legitimate source for a Syrian article you do have to worry. When you have major news sources constantly disregarding the terrible atrocities and human rights abuses being committed by the ‘rebels’ and only heard of undocumented government mess ups you have to worry.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Dec 29th 2012, 12:57 PM

    B Lowe, are you suggesting that you are setting the standard. The only one spouting propaganda on here is you.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Dec 29th 2012, 2:41 PM

    @Blowe
    Try a youtube search for “Daraa massacre” and see what you find. Is this what you quaintly refer to as “undocumented government mess-ups”?
    This is the regime YOU are defending!!

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    Mute mattoid
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    Dec 29th 2012, 2:48 PM

    And as for ‘elected Syrian government’, multi-party elections have been banned in Syria since Assad senior seized power in a coup!

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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 5:28 PM

    Mattoid, I am defending the representative body of the Syrian people, the Syrian government. It has every right to defend itself against both foreign and domestic terrorist attacks.
    Hopefully the Syrian government can defeat these terrorists and then real change can occur in Syria.
    I see you are and have clearly fallen for the propaganda re Syria just as Declan and a few others have.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Dec 29th 2012, 6:41 PM

    No BLowe – it is you who has fallen for the propaganda – the Syrian and Russian propaganda.

    I am under no illusion about elements fighting against the regime that are exploiting the situation for their own agenda, and that have also committed war crimes – yes, and some of them are foreign jihadists.

    You seem to think that opposition fighters are a unified homogenous group, which is just utter naive nonsense! There is clearly savagery in many guises in this conflict, and many diverse participating elements.

    But lets not forget that this conflict was initially sparked by ordinary people rising up against a brutal dictatorial regime – the videos say more than I could ever express, and show the actions of the regime YOU consistently try to defend.

    How you can say that the regime is the ‘representative body of the syrian people’ when all opposition in Syria has been banned for forty years beats me, and speaks volumes about your pro-regime bias!

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Dec 29th 2012, 7:13 PM

    A green thumb from me.

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    Mute Stephen Gill
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    Dec 29th 2012, 8:08 PM

    @B Lowe I salute your consistent naive defence of Bashir el-Assad and his murderous dynastic regime. Despite constantly criticising the western media as biased, you hold up media outlets with even greater twisted biases (some supported by regimes with dubious human rights records) as somehow wondrous beacons of truth. You are not the only one that thinks they are somehow gifted and enlightened and can see some greater truth that is denied to the rest of us mere mortals, however, as we can see by your posts you are actually blinded by your own self imposed ignorance. You are constantly manipulating a jigsaw of facts and ignoring those pieces that do not suit your world view, while exaggerating those that suit.
    You have been challenged a number of times by myself and others on your views, and you have failed to enter into meaningful debate, you have constantly spewed out the same diatribe that holds a modicum of truth but is otherwise suspect. To claim you are setting some kind of standard in your posts is evidence of your own self delusion on the matter. You constantly ignore the fact that the Syrian regimes record (especially during the current crisis) on human rights is abysmal, and that is putting it mildly. Answer me this why has no real change happened in Syria for the past 40 odd years of the Assad regime? Why in your words will real change occur if Assad wins? Get real!
    You are the one that has fallen for the propaganda my friend, you constantly spit it out though you display ignorance of the record of the Syrian Ba’athist regime and geo-political tensions in the region. If you are really honestly interested in the plight of the suffering Syrian people do them justice by doing some proper honest research on the subject, maybe you could start by talking to people who have lived and worked in Syria with the aid agencies or the UN, and take it from there. Until then, do the Syrian people a favour and stop commenting on what you obviously, know nothing about, or go talk to Ed Kavanagh about Manchester Unitead.

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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 9:07 PM

    Again I say it. When the standard of journalism is nothing short of Propaganda with sources like the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights being used constantly someone needs to offer an alternative account.
    These so called ‘rebels’ are mainly of foreign nationality and are intent on causing sectarian strife.
    I suppose Mattoid and Stephen and Declan and others that all of you believed the ‘uprising’ in Libya against Gadaffi was supported by the majority of the population? I suppose that some of your also believe that it was mainly genuine ordinary Libyans taking up arms against Gadaffi forces?
    Hopefully the Syrian government can defeat these terrorists and then ordinary life for the hard pressed Syrian citizens can return to normal.

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    Mute mattoid
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    Dec 29th 2012, 9:54 PM

    ‘Normal’ being brutal repression by a dictatorial regime?

    I have been following this conflict through uploaded citizen videos from the very early stages, before the west or anyone else took any interest, and I can tell you that some of what I have seen is absolutely shocking, and far from ‘normal’ by any stretch of the imagination.

    This is what you are defending with your continued apologism for Assad.

    Just hope (and pray if you’re religious) that you’re never caught in the same situation yourself, or that if you are you won’t be ignored by the outside world.

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    Mute Stephen Gill
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    Dec 29th 2012, 10:58 PM

    @B Lowe it is not a case of anyone believing or not believing something or offering alternative accounts, we are talking about real people’s suffering here, not alternate versions of reality. With news, like all sources of information the source should be evaluated carefully before any conclusion is drawn using previous knowledge and critical thinking skills to assess the information. Your posts have not shown any evidence that you have applied any sort of process, we do see repetition of a totally one sided view from you.
    Truth is elusive at the best of times and in perfect conditions, in war truth is even harder to ascertain, especially in a country where free access was severely restricted in peacetime. We can only evaluate what is happening in Syria on the facts presented from all the sources. You have no better sources of information than anyone else and it is disingenuous to come on here and push the opinion that Assad and his cronies are some kind of misunderstood freedom loving secularist regime that are being victimised. That is someone else’s agenda. Of course, I could be mistaken and maybe you are pushing your own agenda, I don’t know. It is fine to have an opinion and express it I have no problem with that, however you are presenting your opinion as if they are the actual full facts of the situation, which they are not.
    This is as real as it gets for the people suffering on the ground as they are used by Assad and FSA to score atrocity points. Show a bit of compassion for the people of Syria in future before you comment on their plight, Assad and his cronies’ only concern is clinging on to power and they are prepared to sacrifice as many of the Syrian people as it takes to achieve that aim.

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    Mute Stephen Kelly
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    Dec 30th 2012, 12:23 AM

    If your point of entry in analysing any conflict is trying to identify ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ you’re unlikely to arrive at very interesting or accurate conclusions. This is, I think, particularly the case with Syria. We do not need to choose between uncritical support for Assad and uncritical support for the – diverse and fragmented – opposition. Truth is, both have committed atrocities no decent person could stand over.

    Apologists for the Assad regime need to bear a number of things in mind:

    1. Assad is an autocrat with no mandate to rule Syria. Power was handed to him on the death of his father. You would not tolerate undemocratic dynastic rule in Ireland, so why is it okay for Syrians? Assad, like his father, stays in power through extreme coercion and sectarian scare-mongering; control of the media, and so on. Assad is not a socialist or anti-imperialist but a violent neoliberal looter who deploys tanks and air strikes in heavily populated areas, with predictably bloody results.

    2. While Assad does enjoy some support, the revolution began as a result of the brutal state crackdown on demonstrators who took to the streets, inspired by what was going on in Tunisia and Egypt. And of course there was the now famous incident in March 2011 in which young boys who wrote anti-government graffiti on their school wall were picked up by Assad’s secret service and had their finger nails pulled out for their ‘crime’. After this, demonstrations became widespread. It wasn’t a “foreign plot” as the regime claims. Incidentally, that’s what Mubarak and Ben Ali said too. They all say it, don’t believe the hype!

    3. People are right to flag the very real meddling of external forces like the US, Saudi, NATO etc. However this is not an argument for supporting Assad. Nor is the presence of Islamists (for Syria or elsewhere) an argument for supporting Assad. Islamists are as entitled to fight the regime as other tendencies. It may create problems down the road, but again, it’s not an argument for supporting an oppressive, violent, illegitimate political dynasty that responds to street demonstrations with live rounds, arrests, and torture.

    4. Assad has been the architect of what will eventually be his own downfall. As Stephen Starr writes in his new book, Revolt in Syria: Eye-Witness to the Uprising :

    “The protests forced the regime’s hand. It had to choose between grasping a new future and reverting to the violent tactics that had worked so well under the previous president, albeit in a very different time. In a massive miscalculation, it chose the latter.” [p.5]

    It is indeed now a very different time. Leaders of Assad’s ilk are rapidly becoming acquainted with the dustbin of history. Assad will too at some point; it’s just a question of when and in what circumstances.

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    Mute Paul Donnelly
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    Dec 29th 2012, 1:02 PM

    Photo montage:
    good guys = “Free Syrian army(vast majority of photo’s
    Bad Guys= Mr Evil Assad’s crew (most of the photo’s.
    I don’t know what’s going on in Syria because I don’t believe any media outlets in the west/ south/ North or East They are not independent with a very few exceptional journalists whom I have great respect for. There is a battle going on for strategic reasons with the West and their Arab dictatorial surrogates backing the “free Syrian army” and the Russians supporting Assad. Desperately traumatic for the citizens caught in the middle as usual in these wars.

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    Mute toorkeel
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    Dec 29th 2012, 9:48 AM

    Were these photos taken in Limerick?

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    Mute Erfantastico
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    Dec 29th 2012, 11:46 AM

    That has to be the worse attempt at a “joke” I have ever read on this site. Fair play.

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    Mute Ed Kavanagh
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    Dec 29th 2012, 12:34 PM

    Free Syrian Army caught trying to shoot down a civilian passenger plane. Go Team America. Yeeehaaa.
    Don’t recall the big bad Assad trying this before. But we should get rid anyway.

    http://www.infowars.com/video-syrian-rebels-try-to-shoot-down-commercial-airliner/

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    Mute B Lowe
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    Dec 29th 2012, 5:29 PM

    Thanks for that Ed. I did not know about that.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Dec 30th 2012, 3:31 AM

    You don’t know much about anything

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    Mute mattoid
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    Dec 31st 2012, 7:02 PM

    Sorry Ed, but there’s no way in the world that’s a civilian airliner in the video – more like a light aircraft. No surprise to see Alex Jones spinning it as an attempt to bring down a passenger jet though…

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    Mute Khaosan Roche
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    Jan 7th 2013, 2:12 PM

    I speak Arabic; the subtitles are a fraud.

    Alex Jones is a fraud too, as it happens.

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