The road to Damascus had been the Syrian opposition's most difficult journey. Now, after one decisive and deadly strike, the world's oldest capital appears in reach. As the dust settled at the national security building, a transformation unthinkable only hours earlier was under way. Three of the regime's leaders lay dead around the table where they had been holding a weekly crisis meeting: the deputy defence minister, Assef Shawkat, the defence minister, Dawoud Rajha, and the military committee leader, Hassan Turkmani, all key figures in the Middle East's most ruthlessly efficient police state. Of the three, Shawkat had long been...
