Nine months after rebels launched their surprise offensive into Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial capital remains a vital battleground in its grinding civil war. Once considered a stronghold for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Aleppo is now mired in a deadly stalemate, as rebel and regime forces wage daily battles and Assad’s warplanes sow terror overhead. Photojournalist Yusuf Sayman ventured to Aleppo’s front lines for three days in early April and returned with these searing portraits of the rebels’ desperate fight. Here, a rebel fighter, left, eyes a government sniper.
This area on Aleppo’s front lines is regularly shelled, pounded by airstrikes, and targeted with sniper fire.
Yusuf Sayman
A rebel fighter searches for a hidden sniper.
In Aleppo's Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site, a rebel fighter walks through the battered streets.
A view of the city through a hole used by a rebel sniper.
Yusuf Sayman
A young fighter in Aleppo’s decimated Bustan Al-Basha neighborhood.
A 17-year-old rebel does traffic patrol.
Yusuf Sayman
The chief of Aleppo’s military police, Abu Abdullrahman, takes complaints from residents. The military police are a branch of the powerful Liwa Tahweed rebel brigade and have been tasked with keeping order.
Yusuf Sayman
An evidence closet at the headquarters of Aleppo’s military police.
Yusuf Sayman
A military police officer shows counterfeit money that was confiscated in the market.
Yusuf Sayman
Officers resting in the military police headquarters.
Yusuf Sayman
Smoke rises from a building hit by artillery fire in Aleppo’s Karm al-Jabal neighborhood.
A rebel fighter cooks rice while a sniper waits in his position atop a refregirator. The destroyed homes of the Old City now house rebel and regime forces.
Yusuf Sayman
A rebel fighter walks through a destroyed house in Aleppo’s Old City.
Rebels move through makeshift holes between houses to avoid exposing themselves in the streets.
Yusuf Sayman
Homemade bombs are used frequently by rebels to make up for a shortage in arms.
Yusuf Sayman
A rebel fighter takes a tea break.
Yusuf Sayman
A rebel fighter walks through a destroyed house.
Yusuf Sayman
