The small, hard-bitten dictator who had tried to bring order and unity to Syria gave up the fight at 9:30 one night last week. Bowing to a 24-hour ultimatum backed by rebel troops and artillery, he sat down in his marble and stucco presidential palace and wrote: "In order to avoid bloodshed among the Syrian people, whom I love ... I present my resignation." Then he climbed into a black, bulletproof Mercedes that once belonged to Adolf Hitler and, followed by two car loads of gendarmes, headed west from Damascus across the mountains...
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