DAMASCUS, Syria — Homework and house chores are no longer the daily duties of Ammar, a high school student who hopes to one day attend medical school. Recurring electricity outages up to 15 hours a day are maddening in his neighborhood of Jaramana, about 9 kilometers (5.5 miles) northeast of Damascus. The city sits in total darkness at night, further compounding the opposition's daily shelling.
Nights in Jaramana and Damascus and its countryside are no longer glamorous as they were before the war. Damascus is now divided along sectarian, military and administrative lines, though all these areas share the constant power outages, whose duration depends on the proximity to the city center, wealthy areas and police centers. Power outages can also depend on the mood of electricity workers; some areas in the countryside are without electricity for days or weeks.