Jubilant Syrians crowd squares for victory rallies

Key sites of the sprawling network of intelligence agencies which for decades attempted to brutally crush opposition movements can be found along the same central streets of the Syrian capital.

In the basement of the state security headquarters, in the Kafr Sousa district of the city, stand row after row of tiny cells – each just two metres by one metre and protected by thick steel doors.

Inside, dark stains mark the filthy walls. Detainees could be held in these cells for months while being interrogated and tortured.

They are just below street-level, on a busy road where every day thousands of ordinary Syrians passed by, going about their daily lives just a few metres from where their compatriots were being detained and tortured.

A short distance away is the General Intelligence Directorate, another part of Syria’s former network of spy agencies.

There are a huge numbers of records – evidence of how the Assad regime used to monitor its citizens.

There is row after row of paper files in cabinets and, in some rooms, piles of notebooks stacked from floor to ceiling.

Nearby is a computer server room. The floors and walls are a pristine white and black data storage units hum quietly.

The electricity has been cut to much of Damascus but it seems that this facility was so important it had its own power supply.