By Liz Sly
On the night the Middle East changed, Abdulrazaq al-Masri was at home with his wife and children in the Syrian town of Qusayr, glued to social media. It was December 7th 2024, and his Twitter feed was full of astonishing rumours. Rebels were said to be advancing on Damascus; the president, Bashar al-Assad, had supposedly fled the country. Masri glanced out of his window – it was eerily quiet. Just after midnight, he decided to venture outside to see what was happening. The Assad dynasty was indeed falling that night, but Masri was about to witness the crumbling of a different regime.
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