ISTANBUL ¨C Dr. Mehdi Davut smiles as he describes his planned return to his homeland Syria for the first time in eight years to see how his aid association can help in Aleppo, a major city seized by rebels last week.
¡°The liberation of Aleppo brought us such joy because Aleppo was a source of pain,¡± he said in Istanbul, where some half a million Syrians live.
Syrian rebels captured Aleppo from President Bashar Assad¡¯s forces, bringing hopes of return among hundreds of thousands exiled from the city, which has been under Assad¡¯s control since 2016. On Thursday, rebels also captured the city of Hama.
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