March 4, 2025
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Syria’s White Helmets continue to help people in devastated Aleppo

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Syria’s White Helmets continue to help people in devastated Aleppo

The group turns a military base in Aleppo into an emergency response hub, replacing tanks with fire trucks and ambulances.

White Helmets volunteers wait for calls in the courtyard of a former military outpost in Aleppo. Ambulances and emergency response vehicles that they brought from their former base in Idlib are behind them. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]

By Andrei PopoviciuPublished On 2 Mar 20252 Mar 2025

Aleppo, Syria – Abu Ahmad flashes his phone’s torch onto an explosive he found in the basement of a building that used to be a regime military outpost housing soldiers, tanks and ammunition during the Syrian war.

Now Abu Ahmad commands a base for the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets, in the building.

The volunteers in the White Helmets worked tirelessly throughout the war and in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquakes to save people under rubble and get them emergency assistance.

They moved into the building a little more than a month after an opposition offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took Aleppo on November 30 and went on to topple Bashar al-Assad eight days later.

Remnants of the former regime littered the place, Abu Ahmad said, with discarded military uniforms, tank shells and soldiers’ personal belongings tossed aside as people fled the outpost.

Pro-regime graffiti remains. One message reads: “With our soul, with our blood, we’ll sacrifice for you, Bashar.”

“Bashar” has been crossed out with a red X.

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The work continues

In the aftermath of 13 years of war, there’s lots for the White Helmets to do.

They are clearing rubble, demining buildings and searching for mass graves – traces of a battle that strangled the city between 2012 and 2016, led to the regime retaking opposition-held areas of Aleppo and made it one of Syria’s cities most devastated by the war.

Abu Ahmad, who was among the first White Helmets volunteers in 2013, has seen it all.

As Russia pounded Aleppo from the air, the White Helmets pulled people from the rubble at great risk to themselves.

Russia used “double taps” bombing, waiting for rescue workers to arrive after an initial attack and then striking again to target the first responders.

“I lost five people close to me because of this Russian strategy,” Abu Ahmad recalled. “But the worst were the helicopters dropping barrel bombs.”

Before the battles in Aleppo, the building had been used as a fire station, and the regime had brought those firefighters back in 2016 after retaking the city to share space with the military.

Now Abu Ahmad wants to integrate the fire crews into the White Helmets’ work despite their past service to al-Assad.

“We forgive them for what they did,” he said. “What matters now is working together to rebuild the city.”

Once a regime military outpost and fire station, the building has been reclaimed by the White Helmets and transformed into a rescue operations centre. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]

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Fire trucks and cars sit covered in debris and dust in a building that during al-Assad’s regime housed both soldiers and first responders. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
A volunteer in the repurposed fire station in Aleppo is one of the White Helmets who came back to Aleppo after al-Assad’s fall in December. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
The White Helmets gather outside their centre in Aleppo, sharing a moment of rest on a quiet afternoon. They maintain their independence as an organisation and have not been integrated into the new state’s public services yet, according to Abu Ahmad. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
When the war began, the centre’s current commander, Abu Ahmad, moved to the Idlib countryside, after which he eventually became one of Aleppo’s first White Helmets volunteers in 2013. “I saw the bombing and people needing help, so I thought this is the least I can do,” he says. He moved back to the outskirts of Idlib after Aleppo was taken by the regime and lived in exile until December 2024, just after the opposition took control of the city. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
Regime soldiers left the building in a hurry, leaving behind their belongings and uniforms after Aleppo was taken by opposition fighters led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on November 30, 2024. HTS now leads the caretaker government, in place since al-Assad fled Syria to Russia. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]

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The White Helmets had to sift through the remnants left behind by al-Assad’s soldiers. Scattered across the floors were military uniforms, rusted equipment and car parts. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
When the White Helmets took over the building after the regime’s fall, Abu Ahmad found homedmade bombs and explosives in the basement. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
A former regime firefighter pours steaming coffee into glasses. He and his colleagues share the same space as the White Helmets, who have decided to integrate them into their rescue services despite having worked for the regime. “We’re not looking for revenge,” Abu Ahmad says. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
Three former regime firefighters sit together in the building. They can now speak openly about the reality they faced: earning just $10 a month and being forced to steal fuel to survive. “I was put in jail for saying the word ‘dollar’ while talking on the phone to my daughter in Germany,” one complained. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]
A former regime firefighter watches Al Jazeera on the TV, explaining how it wasn’t available before and how watching something like that during the regime would send you to prison. [Alexandra Corcode/Al Jazeera]

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