On the eve of his capital’s fall, Bashar al-Assad climbed into a Russian armoured vehicle with his eldest son Hafez and drove away, leaving relatives, friends and loyalists frantically searching for the man who had promised to protect them.
Not long after, at around 11pm on December 7, longtime associates driving past his home in the upscale Damascus neighbourhood of Malki found abandoned guardposts and largely empty buildings: lights still flickering, coffee cups half-drunk and military uniforms scattered on the street.
By midnight, the then Syrian president was already on his way with Hafez to Russia’s Hmeimim air base on Syria’s north-west coast, according to a rebel military commander, an ex-intelligence officer and people familiar with the Assad family’s escape.