The beautiful game returns to war-torn Aleppo, as Kuwait welcomed an Iraqi player for the first time in 30 years.
War-torn Aleppo has this week hosted its first professional football match in five years.
At the end of December 2016, the Syrian League returned to action, and photos of packed stands went viral, showing thousands of fans cheering on their teams as they played on poorly maintained pitches amid bombed-out husks of buildings.
The first match in Aleppo was a derby between local rivals - Horriya versus Ittihad Aleppo. Ittihad came out on top with a 2-1 win, scoring the winner in the 92nd minute in front of a huge crowd.
Aleppo, once a flourishing economic centre boasting impressive historic sites, has been decimated during the war.
Gulf war wounds are healing
Another landmark event took place this week in Kuwait, when Ali Husni, the Iraqi Al-Minaa left winger, signed on loan for Kuwaiti side Al-Arabi. Coming on as a late substitute and setting up a goal in Al-Arabi's 1-1 draw with Al-Salmiya, Husni became the first Iraqi to play in Kuwait in 27 years - since the 1991 Gulf War.
Husni received a rapturous reception from his new team’s fans, despite the tensions that remain between Kuwait and Iraq since the aggressions of Saddam Hussein nearly thirty years ago.
