On the Syrian border at Jdeidet Yabus, there are no longer any Syrian army or customs officers. The border post is strangely empty. Most of the portraits of the deposed president, Bashar al-Assad, have been torn down. The duty free shop has been completely ransacked. Broken beer cans and whisky bottles litter the floor at the entrance. Before Assad's fall, cars crossing the border into Syria through the crossing had to pass through three roadblocks, two of which were manned by the dreaded Fourth Brigade, commanded by the president's brother, Maher al-Assad. Only two days ago, Syrian soldiers were at this checkpoint, checking identities, searching travellers, asking them a thousand questions and extorting money from them. "We were subjected to a lot of humiliation. They used to force us to pay them. If we did not pay them, they would not let us go though," says Oday Shahad a taxi driver, who used to pay the soldiers to be allowed to continue his journey. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES