Civil war ruins Syrian economy, cities

In Syria's cities and towns, entire blocks of apartment buildings have been shattered, their top floors reduced to pancaked slabs of concrete. Centuries-old markets have been gutted by flames and gunfire in places like Aleppo and Homs -- an irreplaceable chunk of history wiped out in a few hours of battle. And then there are the many factories, oil pipelines, schools, hospitals, mosques and churches that have been systematically destroyed in nearly 19 months of violence.           

Aside from the tragedy of the many lives lost in Syria's civil war -- activists estimate the death toll has now passed 32,000 killed -- there is the staggering damage to the country's infrastructure, economy and cultural treasures.            

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said last week that the economic losses from the ongoing conflict have cost the country about $34 billion, with the figure rising daily, while the opposition estimates the loss at about $100 billion.               

Experts say the real figure cannot be measured with any accuracy, given the continuing nature of the raging violence and the difficulties involved with getting independent observers into the country to assess the damage.            

Although there are some pockets of Syria that have been relatively shielded from the conflict, the destruction in most of the country's major cities is staggering. Experts warn that whenever the civil war ends, it will take a monumental international effort, and perhaps a generation of Syrians, to rebuild what has been broken.           

"In terms of infrastructure, major parts of Syria have effectively been bombed back to Ottoman times," said Ammar Abdul-Hamid, a Syrian activist and a Washington-based fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.                      

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights, which compiles statistics from the conflict, said in a Sept. 28 report that 589,000 buildings -- including residential homes, schools, mosques, churches and hospitals -- have been destroyed, with thousands more severely damaged.               

The group said it used specialized civil engineers to come up with its damage estimate and put the cost of reconstructing residential properties and other buildings at about $40 billion.


AP