An investigation by the Guardian, Lighthouse Reports, Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (Siraj) and Rozana Radio has analysed the almost wholesale demolition of Qaboun, a Damascus suburb, one of many neighbourhoods in the capital that is being cleared and redeveloped beyond recognition after former residents have either been displaced by fighting or become refugees abroad.1

Qaboun is one of several areas across Damascus and Syria that have been demolished after being identified for expropriation under the government’s postwar construction, which is hoping to encourage foreign investment in real estate.

The proposed plans show a dramatically different vision for Qaboun to the working-class neighbourhood that existed before the war and whose residents have been unable to claim their land since the fighting stopped, even while western countries such as Denmark and the UK tell asylum seekers that it is safe to return to Damascus.

Former residents and researchers have accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of socially re-engineering the area after it became a rebel stronghold during the war.

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• 1. Qaboun, a suburb of Damascus that for years resisted the Assad regime, had been emptied of people but was still standing when Syrian forces seized it in 2017. Since then videos and satellite imagery obtained by the Guardian and its investigation partners show Qaboun has paid a heavy price for resisting, with the Syrian military using highly destructive methods to wipe out the entire neighbourhood, justifying the levelling of residential homes as a de-mining exercise.