Ground Zero: Syria (Part 8) - The Pillaging of 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. Continue the discussion #GROUNDZEROSYRIA Watch the rest here Part 1: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-1 Part 2: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-2 Part 3: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-3 Part 4: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-4 Part 5: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-5 Part 6: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-6 Part 7: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-7 Part 8: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-8 Part 9: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-9 Part 10: http://bit.ly/Ground-Zero-Syria-10 Ground Zero Syria is a series where we've compiled photojournalist and videographer Robert King's footage into a series of raw, largely unedited vignettes that present a snapshot of the ancient city as it crumbles and burns while its citizens are killed indiscriminately. Check out the Syria Issue of VICE Magazine here: http://www.vice.com/magazine/19/11 Living in Syria? Support Assad or find the FSA questionable? Want to be part of the discussion? Email us: syriaperspectives@vice.com Watch more VICE documentaries here: http://bit.ly/VICE-Documentaries Subscribe to for videos that are actually good: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE Check out our full video catalog: http://www.youtube.com/user/vice/videos Videos, daily editorial and more: http://vice.com Like VICE on Facebook: http://fb.com/vice Follow VICE on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vice Read our tumblr: http://vicemag.tumblr.com