Syrians lived in terror for decades of what went on behind the concrete walls of Damascus's security compound. Now the Assad dynasty has been toppled, its dungeons and torture chambers are giving up their secrets.

Rebel fighters stand guard at the entrances to the forbidden city in the capital's Kafr Sousa district, where the feared security services had their headquarters alongside government offices.

The myriad of different agencies which kept tabs on the lives of ordinary Syrians each operated their own underground prisons and interrogation chambers inside the walled defence ministry compound.

Syrians lived in fear of being summoned for a round of questioning from which they might never return.

AFP found first responder Sleiman Kahwaji wandering around the complex this week trying to locate the building where he was questioned and then detained.

He said he was still at secondary school when he was arrested in 2014 on suspicion of "terrorism", a frequent allegation under the rule of now toppled president Bashar al-Assad, who brooked no dissent.

"I spent 55 days........

© International Business Times