Once the heart of Syria's uprising against President Bashar Assad, today the city of Homs — reduced to piles of rubble and dust after airstrikes, artillery and rocket attacks — is a grim reminder of the brutality of the Assad regime.

But last week, Homs became the backdrop for a series of wedding photographs featuring a soldier from the Syrian army — the force that helped destroy the city — and his new wife.

See also: Russian drone footage shows the devastation of Syrian city

Hassan Youssef, 27, posed in his military camouflage fatigues and combat boots with Nada Merhi, 18, who wore a traditional white wedding gown as they traipsed happily around the ruins of the ghostly city that once housed more than 1 million people.

Joseph Eid, a photographer with the Agence France-Presse news agency, accompanied the newlyweds and their wedding photographer, Jafar Meray, on the photoshoot. Meray, who said Eid told him he wanted "to show that life is stronger than death," captured the images below.

The wedding photo shoot took place as Assad's forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, laid siege to the rebel stronghold of Aleppo to the north. The offensive has forced as many as 70,000 people to flee to the Turkish border.