Skulls and body bags: Searching for Syria’s disappeared

“What are these notes?” one woman raged. “Nobody is helping us. We want someone to come and check these documents with us. How can I find him among this many prison files?”

The lack of any ordered system means critical evidence is being lost each day at sites across Syria – information about the missing, but also potentially, any links between Assad’s regime and foreign governments like the US or the UK, both of which have been accused of benefitting from the American policy of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorist suspects were sent for interrogation to countries that used torture.

Human rights groups have accused the UK government of turning a blind eye to the US practice during the so-called war on terror, when America sent detainees to several countries in the Middle East, including Syria.

Outside, the silent hangars of the airbase are dotted with the charred remains of Russian-made planes and radar, hit by repeated Israeli airstrikes over the past week.

Assad’s departure has shifted the delicate balance of power between conflicting groups in Syria, and their various international backers, including Turkey, Iran and the US.

This was never just Syria’s war and outside powers still have a stake in what happens here.

Syrians are adamant that the time has come for them to govern themselves without anyone dictating what they should do.

As we leave, a young HTS fighter climbs up on a roof to slash at the portrait of Assad hanging above the interrogation building.

He grins down to the comrades watching from below, as photos and documents from the regime’s military files flutter around their boots.

Assad’s fall has posed as-yet-unanswered questions about Syria’s future, but it has also left unanswered many questions from the past.