The road to Damascus was lined with discarded army uniforms. In a panic, Syrian army soldiers stripped down in the streets in the early hours of Sunday morning, realising their leader, Bashar al-Assad, had abandoned them after 54 years of his family’s rule over Syria.
Syrian army tanks, which were supposed to stop the lightning rebel offensive that started just 11 days earlier, stood empty in front of checkpoints with posters of the late leader Hafez al-Assad, his face half torn. Out of habit, a driver stopped and rolled down the window, but there was no one at the checkpoint.
