#damascus

#damascus

"Damascus" is a briskly-paced, uptempo groove that features Souleyman singing proudly throughout. Filling in the space between the drums and soaring vocals is Bey, rapping a refrain that drips potent imagery. "Navigating the waves in the dark, no map/ Stars in the heavens and the breeze on my back," he raps, extremely close to a chant.

At around midnight on December 8, 2024, the 20-year-old Yamen was on his phone as news poured in that the regime might be on its last legs. A rebel operation from the north of Syria had overtaken Aleppo, Hama and Homs, and word was that they were on their way to Syria's capital city. Yamen told a few friends and joined them in the streets of Damascus.

Abu Mohammed still remembers the smell. It usually came at dawn, as the mosques sounded the first call to prayer. By the time he sat down for breakfast, it would fill the air around his home in Tadamon, a working-class district in the south-east of Damascus. The smell was hard to define. Whenever he noticed it, Abu Mohammed felt on edge.

The attack on Saint Elias church in Damascus, the first major IS operation post-Assad, marks a significant escalation in violence and insecurity within Syria.