This post was originally published on Arab News
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DAMASCUS: Samir Al-Baghdad grabbed his pickax and walked up a wobbly set of stairs made of cinderblocks and rubble.
He is rebuilding his destroyed family house in the Qaboun neighborhood near Damascus, Syria ‘s capital.
The traditional building, which once housed his family, parents and some relatives, had a courtyard decorated with plants and tiled floors where guests were received. But the house, like scores of others nearby, has been reduced to heaps of rubble during years of civil war.