Dana, near Sarmada in Idlib province, is less than 40km east of second city Aleppo, but had been cut off from the rest of the country until the fall of president Bashar al-Assad less than a week ago.

Syria’ s only Olympic gold medalist, Ghada Shouaa, was promised plenty by the Assad regime. But all she received were lies, fear and death threats. "The dictator, Hafez Assad, threatened to kill me ...