Luca Steinmann Is Talking about the Current Situation in Syria

Presenter: Can you tell us about the current situation in Syria?

Luca Steinmann: Well, Syria is divided under different areas of control. The Syrian government is taking back the control of many areas. We can say that today around 65 till 70% of the Syrian ground is under the control of the Syrian government. I was there 3 weeks ago and I was reporting in different cities in Syria. I was covering the front Yarmuk, close to Damascus, I was covering the Southern front on the border with Lebanon and not far from Julan and from Jordan. And I was in Palmyra and in Homs. And while I could find very different situations in each city. Palmira is a city there has completely been abandoned by the population. It was just freed 3 weeks before my arrival and I was one of the first known Middle Eastern, and known Syrian people going there. I could find a city in which there is no population anymore and I could see how the terrorists, DAESH terrorist organization, was destroying the city in order to break every links between the future and the past of it. Homs is a city and has not been controlled by DAESH organization but by many other groups. There are around fifteen groups of rebels controlling it. They were all radical groups. They were giving big problems especially to the Christian community I was able to visit. I could report about the story of the Christian community that was oppressed by those people. Even when before the war there was absolutely no problem between Muslims and Christians in Homs. Great majority, the biggest part of the city has been destroyed actually not by the terrorists, not by the rebels but mostly by the bombing of the government that was freeing, that was liberating those areas from the control of those terrorist. While Damascus, in the city center there is absolutely no, absolutely the war cannot be seen, but we could hear from far away the noises of the clashes happening in the suburbs of the area. And it was incredible to see how people in the city center were going out, were partying, were really happy and free even if just a kilometers away clashes were taking place.