Syria – The Pillaging of the Umayyad Mosque

On October 13, 2012, Aleppo’s Umayyad Mosque, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the oldest mosques in the world, suffered extensive fire damage amid fierce fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and the Free Syrian Army. Since then it has been alternately occupied by the FSA and the Syrian military. Photographer and videographer Robert King recently visited the mosque in an attempt to clarify who was responsible for its destruction. The occupiers who he met alleged that Assad’s armies raped innocent women inside the structure, and that the courtyard of the mosque contains a mass grave of the victims’ remains.

Watch more videos from the Ground Zero – Syria series:

Al-Qusayr Field Hospital

The Burning of the Old Souk

Aleppo Field Hospital

Under Fire for Bread in Aleppo

The Bombing of Aleppo’s Dar al-Shifa Hospital

The Free Syrian Army

Snipers of Aleppo