At a Damascus air base once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader's rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family.

"It's hard to believe we're filming here," director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention centre run by Assad's air force intelligence branch, known for its cruelty

The site in the capital's southwestern suburbs "used to be a symbol of military power. Now we are making a show about the fall of that power", he told AFP.

Assad fled to Russia as an Islamist-led offensive closed in on Damascus, taking it without a fight on December 8 last year after nearly 14 years of civil war and half a century of Assad dynasty rule.

The scene at the Mazzeh base depicts the escape

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