A tour of Assad’s homes with the Syrians who stormed them

Omar knew something was up around 5am, when he heard cries of “Allahu Akbar” coming from the direction of the Assad family residences.

He was at home, following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government online, but he hadn’t expected the rebels to reach central Damascus so quickly.

“I immediately rushed towards Assad’s house. I had to see for myself that he was gone,” Omar tells Middle East Eye, crunching over broken glass as he retraces his footsteps from Saturday night. “My feet took me here, not my brain.”

Omar, who like many Syrians still has an institutional fear of speaking freely and wished to use a pseudonym, says the first thing he noticed was the smell. “It was a presidential scent,” he says.

Occasionally it still rises from the corners of this multi-story villa in the Malki neighbourhood of the Syrian capital, a musty cedar. 

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