To the victors go the sports cars.
When Islamist rebel forces in Syria marched into Damascus and stormed the palace of Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, they found a massive fleet of high-end cars, including Mercedes, Porches, Audis and Ferraris.
Videos shared on social media show gleeful looters touring a massive garage in the presidential palace, chock full of high-end roadsters from the deposed dictator’s private stash.
One eagle-eye commenter pointed to a coveted Mercedes-Benz with gullwing doors.
SUVs, motorcycles, ATVs, and what appears to be an armored truck also awaited the rebels, who traipsed through the sprawling mansion taking selfies, firing guns into the air and making off with anything that wasn’t bolted down, videos shared on X show.
The palace is a sprawling, blocky fortress of stone and marble perched on a hill on the outskirts of Damascus; the Guardian once described it as an “echoing monument to dictator decor.”
Rebel soldiers found it abandoned after Assad absconded by plane to an unknown location, Reuters reported, putting an end to 24 years of brutal rule in which the dictator and his family lived like emperors while the people languished.
Videos shared on X show men hauling away furniture and artwork while women in full hijab picked through the dishes and bed linens.
One video shows what appears to be an armory stocked with scores of submachine guns.
“I imagine he and those close to [Assad] … thought: ‘we have enough ammo! We are invincible! Nothing can shake us!’ the poster, TOKO, quipped.
In another video, looters discover a bunker network hidden deep under the main structure, the concrete floors littered with what appear to be empty cigar boxes and gun cases.
“He who fears the people digs hundreds of feet underground,” the poster, Abdullah Almousa, wrote in Arabic.
The palace wasn’t the only government building to be ransacked as soldiers peeled off their uniforms and abandoned their posts.
One user posted a video of what he claims to show people carrying sacks of “money and valuables” from the central bank.
“The smart people did not go to Assad’s palace for chandeliers, but to the bank for cash and gold!” he wrote.
