Syrian architect Abdel Aziz al-Mohammed could barely recognise his war-ravaged village when he returned after years away. Now, his meticulous documentation of the damage using a drone helps to rebuild it.

"When I first came back, I was shocked by the extent of the destruction," said Mohammed, 34.

Walking through his devastated village of Tal Mardikh, in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, he said he could not recognise "anything, I couldn't even find my parents' home".

Nearly half of Tal Mardikh's 1,500 homes have been destroyed and the rest damaged, mainly due to bombardment by the former Syrian army.

Mohammed, who in 2019 fled the bombardment to near the Turkish border, first returned days after an Islamist-led offensive toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

The architect, now based in Idlib city, had........

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