Hello and

the B. B. C. World Service.

My name is Lena Xinjab, and over the next few weeks,

I'll be hosting a collection of some of the most powerful editions of assignment,

broadcast about Syria since a peaceful revolution there turned into a full-scale civil war a decade ago.

Nowadays, I'm a correspondent based in Beirut, Lebanon, but I grew up in

Damascus and was working there for the BBC when the war started. The Syrian capital used to be known for its Jasmine trees, spice markets,

and covered bazaars, and it has a history that goes back thousands of years. By 2013, though, the situation had become so dangerous there that I had to leave.

This is my Damascus diary, my farewell if you like, to my home city. It's 5 p.m. it's dark and raining. People rushing back home. Streets are almost empty.

Beside the sound of the rain is the sound of the shelling.

I'm walking back home.

Rushing actually.

It's quite worrying to walk in the dark these days in Damascus. Damascus was very lively and vibrant city. It used to be cramped with tourists, people shopping, people going to enjoy their lives.

And it was easy to walk around and I would walk from my home everywhere but nowadays it's completely different.

I'm Lena Sinjab. I've started working with the BBC since 2004 and I've been reporting since 2007 on events in Syria but since the start of the

uprising in March I've covered it closely. I've been recording my thoughts and my feelings watering the city

that I've always lived in in Damascus changing. For a quite long time the regime managed to rally supporters around him.

There were a pro-regime protest in the streets, pro-regime marches with thousands of people chanting for Assad, long-lived

Assad, a sad forever, either Assad or nobody.

We love you, Basha.

But later on they started saying either Basha or we will burn the country and now they say we will burn the country

That's how the attitude changed amongst supporters of the regime. I've just come to the

...