Aleppo, Syria – Abu Ahmad flashes his phone’s torch onto an explosive he found in the basement of a building that used to be a regime military outpost housing soldiers, tanks and ammunition during the Syrian war.

Now Abu Ahmad commands a base for the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets, in the building.

The volunteers in the White Helmets worked tirelessly throughout the war and in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquakes to save people under rubble and get them emergency assistance.

They moved into the building a little more than a month after an opposition offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took Aleppo on November 30 and went on to topple Bashar al-Assad eight days later.

Remnants of the former regime littered the place, Abu Ahmad said, with discarded military uniforms, tank shells and soldiers’ personal belongings tossed aside as people fled the outpost.

Pro-regime graffiti remains. One message reads: “With our soul, with our blood, we’ll sacrifice for you, Bashar.”

“Bashar” has been crossed out with a red X.

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The work continues

In the aftermath of 13 years of war, there’s lots for the White Helmets to do.

They are clearing rubble, demining buildings and searching for mass graves – traces of a battle that strangled the city between 2012 and 2016, led to the regime retaking opposition-held areas of Aleppo and made it one of Syria’s cities most devastated by the war.

Abu Ahmad, who was among the first White Helmets volunteers in 2013, has seen it all.

As Russia pounded Aleppo from the air, the White Helmets pulled people from the rubble at great risk to themselves.

Russia used “double taps” bombing, waiting for rescue workers to arrive after an initial attack and then striking again to target the first responders.

“I lost five people close to me because of this Russian strategy,” Abu Ahmad recalled. “But the worst were the helicopters dropping barrel bombs.”

Before the battles in Aleppo, the building had been used as a fire station, and the regime had brought those firefighters back in 2016 after retaking the city to share space with the military.

Now Abu Ahmad wants to integrate the fire crews into the White Helmets’ work despite their past service to al-Assad.

“We forgive them for what they did,” he said. “What matters now is working together to rebuild the city.”