Uدير دير -Zor – Four years after the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in its last stronghold in the far eastern town of Baghouz, the aftermath of destruction and devastation still bears witness to the ferocity of the battle in the town as residents gradually try to return to their lives.

In a tour of Al Jazeera Net around the town, the effects of war and the remnants of clashes appear, and the remains of charred car bodies and deep potholes in the roads are spread due to shelling with rockets and missiles, to exceed the rate of destruction in the town, according to local sources, about 70% of the town's buildings located in the countryside of the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, amid the absence of local reconstruction efforts.

Years ago, the world had never heard of the name of the town of Baghouz, but its transformation into the last pocket of the remnants of ISIS fighters made it the focus of attention of international and Arab news agencies and newspapers, when it witnessed the announcement of the elimination of the organization in Syria in March 2019 by the international coalition led by the United States of America.

Baghouz residents try to shake off the dust of war and return to their normal lives (Al Jazeera)

Heavy legacy

Today, the town's residents are struggling to survive and shake off the group's heavy legacy, as war-weary Syria faces complex crises and near-power and water cuts.

Although the war ended here four years ago, the remnants of the battles and the difficult living situation are worrying the residents and preventing them from investing their agricultural land on the outskirts of the town, at a time when farmers complain about the lack of support and the weakness of local capabilities.

Farmer Khaled al-Wadi is promising a good planting season this year, citing heavy rainfall in the area, but says farmers in the town are suffering from a significant shortage of fertilizers, seeds and basic agricultural equipment.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Al-Wadi called on humanitarian organizations concerned with supporting farmers to secure sufficient seeds and fertilizers for crops, pointing to the importance of removing rubble and remnants of war from agricultural land that prevent the investment of full areas.

Most farmers lost their orchards and fields and suffered heavy financial losses during the coalition's war against IS, and now they need all support, al-Wadi said.

Baghouz is under the authority of the Kurdish Autonomous Administration, which is not socially accepted by the people, according to Syrian writer and political analyst Firas Allawi, noting that this administration has not carried out any reconstruction or rehabilitation of destroyed buildings in the town.

Allawi believes that the reasons for the marginalization of the town may be due to two reasons: the first is the desire to leave it as a witness to the latest battles between the international coalition and ISIS and to keep the effects of the war present, and the second is its remote location on the Syrian-Iraqi border, which has removed services from it.

The rate of destruction in Baghouz is estimated at 70% of the buildings due to fierce battles (Al-Jazeera)

Remnants of war

As battles intensified in the town in March 2019, ISIS elements holed up in it resorted to booby-trapping and mining dozens of houses, agricultural lands, and main and secondary roads, with the aim of impeding the progress of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces supported by the international coalition forces.

An estimated 36 people have lost their lives in the town as a result of mine explosions and remnants of war, while more than 70 people suffer from limb loss.

Um Hussein did not forget how the joy of returning home turned into a state of sadness and sorrow, when a mine exploded on her young son while he was cleaning the family home from the devastation of the war, causing the amputation of his right hand.

Um Hussein says, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that her son has since turned into a disabled person who cannot work and earn a living, appealing to humanitarian organizations to consider the condition of her son and provide support and assistance to him.

The Syrian Pentecostal pointed out that no specialized international or local committees were present to remove these mines, which have become a source of constant fear and concern for the population.

Small town has 5 mass graves of unidentified victims (Al Jazeera)

Mass graves

The remnants of war are not only ISIS's only dark legacy in the town, as the small town has five mass graves scattered within and around it, where the group buried many of its military dead and others civilians who died in shelling and battles in the town or were executed by ISIS.

An exact number of those buried in these graves is not known, amid conflicting estimates from hundreds to thousands of victims, while they are likely to belong to different nationalities from all countries of the world.

The head of the forensic medicine committee in Deir Ezzor, Dr. Mishari al-Hazoum, confirmed that a specialized team under his leadership collected about 456 bodies lying on the surface of the ground inside Baghouz at the end of military operations in March 2019 and documented the information of their owners, before they were buried in a private cemetery without witnesses.

And about the five mass graves, said Al-Hazm, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that the medical teams have opened one of them based on the demands of the people, where 3 bodies were discovered on top of each other inside the same grave.

Mishari explained that some of the bodies were tied with iron chains, and their owners were shot dead through field executions, as they wore clothes for the executions carried out by the group.

The Syrian doctor pointed out that the majority of the bodies were of Asian nationalities, former Soviet Union countries and others of Iraqi nationality.

The town did not witness any reconstruction of houses destroyed by shelling and battles (Al-Jazeera)