A social media campaign from Syria’s state news agency asking people to share pictures of their summer has backfired as users instead share photos of the country’s bloody conflict.
The English-language wing of the agency asked users to “snap us your moments of summer” using the hashtag #SummerInSyria. But many users have been using the same hashtag to share photos of bomb-site wreckage and injured civilians from the country’s four-year-old civil war:
— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 23, 2015
The conflict, which began in 2011 as President Bashar al-Assad brutally cracked down against pro-democracy demonstrations, has killed more than 210,000 people and displaced half the country’s population, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syria in 1940: Crossroads of the Middle East During WWII
A view of Damascus, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesRaising the French flag at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesWomen carry water containers on their heads as they lead mules along a road in a desert village near Damascus, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesMembers of the Bedouin "camel cavalry" near Damascus, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStreet scene, Damascus, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesView of the downtown area of Aleppo from atop the ramparts of the great citadel built in the 4th century B.C.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesView from above Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSoldiers urge a mule up the steps of the citadel at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesScene in Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesInside the garrison of the French expeditionary force in the great citadel at Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesStreet scene, Aleppo, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesA narrow street in downtown Aleppo, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesA Moroccan soldier of the French expeditionary force holds an officer's Arabian horse inside the great citadel at Aleppo, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesEngineers relax on the grounds of the great citadel, Aleppo, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesFrench Foreign Legion soldiers at their outpost at Homs, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesFrench Foreign Legion soldiers gather around newly erected tents as they set up their outpost near Homs, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSouth of Homs, men of the Tunisian infantry prepare to eat.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesArchaeological ruins with modern homes in background, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesA family walks past the walled town and beehive-shaped homes of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesView of the walled town of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSyrian children outside the walled town of Tell Bisse, Syria, 1940.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesLIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.LIFE MagazineLIFE magazine, May 20, 1940.LIFE Magazine
