Repairing the at least 2.9 million buildings which have been demolished or damaged in the ongoing Syrian civil war would cost US$165 billion, says a human rights watchdog.
Around "589 thousand buildings were completely demolished, a figure which corresponds to around 20 percent of all buildings across the country," the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) says in its report released Thursday.
"The damaged buildings include 3,872 schools, 451 mosques, 194 hospitals and 36 churches," the report added.
Meanwhile, the 736 thousand buildings damaged in attacks by Syrian regime forces are equal to 25 percent of the buildings still standing.
The SNHR, which tracks daily civilian and dissident casualties across Syria, said President Bashar Assad's forces mostly used tanks, mortar shelling, Scud missiles and barrel bombs in attacks on opposition-held areas.
Several regions, especially in the hard-hit cities of Aleppo, Homs and Hama, went to rack and ruin after regime attacks.
According to the report, the number of buildings totally destroyed or damaged in different cities are as follows: 875 thousand in Homs, 762 thousand in Aleppo, 625 thousand in capital Damascus, 520 thousand in Idlib, 380 thousand in Daraa, 185 thousand in Hama, 135 thousand in Deir ez-Zor and Latakia, and 200 thousand in Raqqa and Hasaka.
The hardest hit areas are Damascus’ Al-Kabun, Darayya, Jobar, Douma, Haresta and Berze districts; Homs’ Qusoor, Bab Amr, Khalidiya, Bab al-Sebaa and Old Homs neighborhoods; Hama’s 40th Street; Aleppo’s Sheikh Yaseen of Deir ez-Zor; Khaydariyah, Qadi Askari, Masakin Hanano, Ansari, Sahur, Şiar, Sheikh Maqsood, Klis, Firdevs ve Magayir, Besatin Kusur, Al-Bab and Old Aleppo neighborhoods.
While over 100,000 people have been killed and 3.5 million internally displaced, 2.5 million others have sought refuge in neighboring countries since the bloody conflict erupted in March 2011, according to the United Nations.
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