A fighter with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that led the overthrow of the Assad regime, stands on the terrace of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s household villa outdoors Latakia. After the Assad regime fell final month, the household’s properties had been left deserted. A type of was the Assad summer season residence, with a non-public seaside on the Mediterranean.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
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Ayman Oghanna for NPR
QARDAHA, LATAKIA, Syria — There’s a lengthy, winding street resulting in what was as soon as the household residence of ousted Syrian chief Bashar al-Assad simply outdoors Latakia on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. On both aspect of the street within the village of Burj al-Islam, there are lush orange bushes and olive bushes. The quiet of the property is just disturbed by the sound of electrical sawing. Dozens of Syrians are reducing and amassing wooden branches, tying them in bunches and hauling them on the again of pickup vans, bicycles and bikes. They zip down the street and out of the grounds.
Hanan Sary, 40, mentioned folks in her village had been by no means allowed on this forest earlier than. They by no means had the proper of wooden to burn in stoves to maintain heat, however the wooden right here is ideal.
“See our land with all these olives, we could never enter it before, but now we’re here,” Sary advised NPR.
A couple of minutes’ drive away is the gate of the summer season villa. There’s a giant group of armed guards consuming tea and letting vehicles in. Persons are lined up on the entrance, ready to go to the home prefer it’s a museum.
Syrians take images contained in the grounds of the beforehand off-limits Assad summer season villa outdoors Latakia.
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An HTS fighter stands beside the recent tub of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad within the Assad household villa outdoors Latakia.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
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The fashionable white constructing is surrounded by gardens of cacti, palm bushes and every kind of flowers. The villa is sprawling, with a large kitchen, a swimming pool and a non-public seaside. It’s reported to have been constructed 50 years in the past.
Inside, the home is now fully empty of furnishings. In a short time after Assad and his household fled Syria when the autocratic ruler was toppled final month, peculiar Syrians entered the beforehand off-limits residence — and looted it. Wires are uncovered on the partitions the place the TVs had been snatched, lighting fixtures yanked from the ceilings, glass shattered, sinks pulled from toilet counters. Even heating and air con items are gone.
It is easy to get misplaced within the villa amid numerous walk-in closets, ensuite loos with fashionable showers, and bed room after bed room. The first toilet has a big Jacuzzi bathtub that overlooks the Mediterranean, match for a bubble tub with a sundown view. The bathroom, bathe and mirror are all smashed in. The large kitchen has a bar, giant sinks and counter tops match for knowledgeable chef.
On the partitions of one of many dwelling rooms is black spray-painted graffiti cursing the lately deposed ruler.
Furnishings contained in the villa have been looted, together with electrical wiring.
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An HTS fighter seen contained in the Assad household villa outdoors Latakia.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
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“The palace of the serial killer, Bashar al-Assad,” it reads in Arabic.
Mohamed Ismail, 25, is among the many Syrians touring the house. He poses for a photograph on one of many a number of balconies, and says he is enthralled by the home, but additionally bitter.
“He kept his people living in poverty while he lived in a palace with a million rooms,” Ismail says in regards to the former president.
Outdoors, the gardens are properly manicured and huge. There’s a house for entertaining — a pizza oven, a bar, and an space to cook dinner. There’s a swimming pool together with a row of showers and loos to rinse off in after a dip.
This was residence to one of the secretive dictators on the planet, and now Syrians who had been terrified to say something about him are freely wandering round what was as soon as his lounge.
Residents of close by villages lower firewood from the bushes surrounding the previous Assad summer season villa outdoors Latakia.
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The sprawling, empty villa overlooks the Mediterranean.
Ayman Oghanna for NPR
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Ayman Oghanna for NPR
