When the rebels finally reached Bashar al-Assad’s sprawling palace in Damascus, the gates were open. There was no traffic on the floodlit highways leading into the vast estate, and apparently no defenders among the carefully tended trees. In the empty guardhouses, coats were still hung on the back of doors, so swiftly had the occupants fled.
Asked by the Guardian early on Sunday morning what had happened to the tens of thousands of men of the armed forces, pro-government militias, intelligence services, police and others who had all been dedicated to the preservation of Assad’s rule, one veteran Damascus-based analyst gave a terse answer: “They have vanished. Every single one.”
