Damascus airport reopened on Wednesday (December 18) for the first time since the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad, where only a few details were missing this morning to make it ready, as the flags of the new regime were still being painted. Green replaces red and a star is added in the middle of the flag.
The airport is currently open only to domestic flights, and airport officials have not yet specified when international flights will resume from the Damascus airport.
At the airport entrance there is a looted Mercedes car, which some suggest to our correspondent may be the car in which Bashar al-Assad arrived at the airport to leave the country on his way to Moscow.
Inside the airport, duty free stores are still closed, as looters' destruction continues to be cleaned up.
Pro-Assad forces abandoned the airport in the capital on December 8 as opposition fighters closed in on the city following a lightning offensive that began on November 27. Since then, no flights had taken off or landed due to security reasons.
SHOTLIST
- VS Airport exteriors
- New Syrian flag being painted on the airport building
- VS Looted Mercedes car
- VS Airport terminal
- Airport arrivals board
- VS Airport staff working and cleaning duty-free area
- VS Broken alcohol bottles
- VOXPOP (English) Borjan, shop manager: “They opened the doors and stole everything in the shop.”
- VS Damages inside stores
