Eight years have passed since the forces of Assad and Lebanese Hezbollah seized control of the Syrian city of al-Qusayr, turning it into a ghost town. Its original residents are currently located in the areas between Idlib and the Aleppo countryside.

Al-Qusayr is one of the largest cities in Homs province, with over 80 villages and towns affiliated with it.

In June 2013, Assad's forces took it over with the direct support of the Lebanese Hezbollah. It was the first region to witness external intervention by foreign forces.

Since the Syrian army took control of the town, it has disappeared from the news headlines.

Currently, between 2,000 and 5,000 people live in the city of al-Qusayr, out of a population of 60,000 in the past, according to an official census issued by the Assad regime in 2011.

According to informed sources, the rate of destruction in homes and essential facilities is 85 percent, noting that the Assad government "has so far not moved a single stone, despite its repeated statements on the subject."

Al-Qusayr has a strategic location that has made it a central point in recent years for smuggling from Lebanon to Syria and vice versa, which Lebanese officials recently confirmed.

In addition, there has been much talk in recent years that Hezbollah officials have used hundreds of dunams of land in the Alcosire area for cannabis cultivation and set up mini-factories to produce captagon bullets.

Although there are no comments about the above from Hezbollah or the Assad regime, the residents of the city have confirmed this information, saying that there is an upward trend in the size of the areas where cannabis has been planted.