Syrian graffiti artist pays tribute to Maradona

A Syrian graffiti artist residing in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib has paid tribute to the legendary football player Maradona, who recently died of heart failure, by drawing his image on walls of houses collapsed following the attacks by the Assad regime.

Aziz al-Asmar earned his reputation for painting international and local agenda items on walls of ruined houses following the regime strikes, and his latest work is devoted to Diego Armanda Maradona, who passed away at the age of 60 on Nov. 25.

Al-Asmar said that he used to watch the matches of the legendary football player when he was still actively playing, and he wanted to immortalize the Argentinian player by drawing him on the walls of the collapsed houses.

"As people of Idlib, we drew Maradona's picture on walls of the houses collapsed by the Assad regime and its supporters," he said, adding that he wanted to aware the global community that the admirers of Maradona in Idlib lost their houses in the attacks by the Assad regime.

Syria has been embroiled in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, over 5 million civilians have become homeless.