Shoots of recovery amid Aleppo's rubble

ALEPPO, Syria - In a former rebel-held district of Aleppo, factory owner Karam allows himself a small smile as he watches his machines back in action, churning out plastic goods.

Six months after Syria's army captured the country's onetime economic powerhouse, dozens of manufacturers with small and medium-sized factories are cautiously returning to the city's east, once a stronghold of opposition fighters.

"I had 30 machines, and there are five left. I lost $1.5 million when my warehouse outside the city was set alight," said Karam in his office in the al-Kalasseh neighborhood.