After the battle, despair grips Damascus

In the once bustling shopping district of Hamra Street in the heart of Damascus, three men - all made homeless by fighting which raged in the city for two weeks - sit outside their empty shops on a deserted pavement.

Residents of the eastern and southern suburbs of the Syrian capital, which have been hardest hit by President Bashar al-Assad's fierce counter-offensive against rebel forces, they have sought shelter with family in central Damascus.