IDLIB: Battered by air strikes, the main stadium in the rebel-held Syrian city of Idlib hosted a football friendly on Wednesday, re-opening after three years of closure. Idlib has been hit by heavy aerial bombardments by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The city is largely controlled by Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel coalition dominated by a former branch of Al-Qaeda. It is the capital of Idlib province, home to a patchwork of other rebel groups. The stadium restoration is only a superficial one – just enough to allow informal matches. Wednesday’s game pitched the White Helmets, rescuers in rebel-held zones, against a team from the University of Idlib. Both groups helped carry out basic repairs on the municipal facility.
Published in Daily Times, April 27th 2018.