Apr 15, 2015

The people of the war-ravaged city of Aleppo have been through some very bad times during the past 2½ years of civil war, and they have gotten used to living in constant fear and uncertainty. The specter of death was ever-present; it never left them, not even inside their own homes or in their own beds. Yet, for all their tenacity, the events of Good Friday — April 10, according to the Eastern Christian calendar that most Syrian Christians observe — were a terror-filled nightmare that sent new shockwaves of despair and terror.

As rebel rockets and shells rained down through the night on the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Sulaimaniyah in west Aleppo, just a short distance from one of the city’s many front lines, there was mass panic as buildings collapsed, killing and injuring dozens, while others remained trapped under the rubble. Residents began to flee in the darkness, not really knowing where to head to as ambulances, fire trucks and rescue workers attempted to tackle the ongoing carnage. The atmosphere of fear and terror was exacerbated by a city in a perpetual state of darkness with almost no power and limited communication and Internet access following the collapse of vital infrastructure after the provincial capital of Idlib was taken over by Islamist groups on March 28.

It was not immediately possible to gauge the full extent of damage and death, which only became apparent on the morning of April 11. Pictures and videos of the bloodbath began to appear and circulate, and the scale was horrific, even for a city that is used to atrocity. Words such as “massacre” are now being used, as the figures for the dead and injured reached into the dozens. Immediately, as is usual in Syria, there were calls for exacting revenge — but revenge against whom? Many, like the outspoken regime loyalist and head of Aleppo’s Chamber of Industry, Fares Shehabi, have called for attacking rebel hometowns and villages in north Aleppo in retaliation.

More often than not in this barbarous war, innocent civilians pay the price of “revenge” and it was no different this time around. Not wanting to be seen as weak or ineffectual, the Syrian regime launched rockets and airstrikes on rebel-held eastern parts of the city, and invariably killed bystanders, like the ones gathered at a market in Maadi neighborhood where opposition sources reported at least eight casualties.

And thus, the events of Good Friday in Aleppo were a microcosm of the divisive, violent and intractable conflict tearing the nation apart. What was just as shocking as the random mass murder of the innocent, was the way the supporters of each side justified it — even cheered it on — in the name of “liberation” or fighting terrorists.