Damascus Brings in Festive Season With Massive Christmas Parade

Reuters
Updated:

A parade was held in Damascus on Dec. 22 to celebrate Christmas with a band comprising more than 100 Syrian scout troops.

The parade kicked-off in Bab Touma and ended in Abbasiyeen square passing through Qassa, in Eastern Ghouta, areas that were targets of incessant shelling and mortar attacks by rebel groups for years.

Areas on the eastern edge of Damascus bore the brunt of insurgent shelling until government forces recovered control of the eastern Ghouta region in a Russian-backed offensive.

Following the recovery of eastern Ghouta in April, government forces moved on to take back the Yarmouk area south of the capital, bringing all of Damascus back under state control.