By Mohamed Misto

DAMASCUS

Marking the 6th year of a popular uprising against the Syrian regime, residents of the Damascus suburb of Jobar have planted olive trees to commemorate the anniversary.

“Around 200 olive trees were planted in alleys destroyed by the Syrian regime and Russia,” Maher Abul-Kheir, spokesman for the opposition-held suburb, told Anadolu Agency. “[The move] reaffirms that the revolution is still working to topple the Syrian regime.”

Abul-Kheir said the initiative to plant the olive trees aimed to “breathe a new spirit in the suburb.”

Since March 2011, the Syrian opposition has been calling for ending the four-decade rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria. The Bashar al-Assad regime, however, cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity, pushing the Arab country into a vicious civil war.

According to a tally compiled by Anadolu Agency, more than 361,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict erupted in 2011.