Damascus has been sacked plenty of times. Even Carthage was re-built. Even if ISIS does take over Damascus it will still be lived in. So I just took that to mean conquered. But it may refer to a nuclear explosion - I get what you are saying. I am open to everything at this point.
Sacking a city, while it *can* lead to that, does not automatically place a city into the category of "being taken away from *being* a city". That language specifies nothing less than Troy/Carthage/Sparta level destruction. In short nothing left but ruins too costly to rebuild on...
the infowarrior