Atareb , Syria ( CNN ) -- After months of fighting , the regime 's men finally abandoned this strategic crossroads . President Bashar al Assad 's troops left behind a bullet-riddled ghost town patrolled by rebels and a handful of shell-shocked residents . Fighters had renamed the stretch of the Bab el Hawa highway , which ran through the center of town , the `` Street of Death . '' Until recently , they said anyone who dared set foot on it became a target . A mini-graveyard of burned-out armored personnel carriers sat next to the main municipal building , which served as a base for government soldiers . Several weeks after rebels captured the town , the building 's walls were still decorated with pro-regime graffiti proclaiming frightening ultimatums : `` Either Bashar or we 'll burn this city '' and `` Bashar or nothing . '' `` This used to be a very classy area . ... The Turks would come here to see our village , '' said a fighter named Abdullah Behri , who was treated in a hospital in nearby Turkey after losing his left eye to shrapnel during a battle here last May . `` Now it has all turned to hell , '' he said , pointing at the town 's deserted streets . Syria says it would use WMDs vs. foreigners . Locals said they used to travel from the surrounding countryside to shop at the Atareb market . It straddles the Bab el Hawa highway , roughly halfway between the Turkish border and the Syrian commercial capital Aleppo , located only 20 miles away . Though rebels appeared to control Atareb , the fight in the surrounding countryside was still far from over . The commander of the local rebel brigade , Ahmed el Faj , was killed on Friday along with at least 11 of his fighters , rebels said , during a botched attack on a nearby regime-controlled police school . Three days later , rebels said they were still waiting for a government hospital to release Faj 's body , so that they could hold a proper burial . And residents and fighters said the town still came under daily fire from nearby artillery . U.S. contemplates Syria after al-Assad . `` There is a military base about 6 kilometers away , and it shells us with artillery every day , '' said a resident named Abdul Sayyid , whose restaurant lay in ruins due to the fighting . There also had n't been any electricity or running water in Atareb in months . Much of the damage in town was focused around the main municipal building . Soldiers had converted offices for running the town 's bureaucracy into a military outpost . They fortified the rooftop with sniper 's nests that were clearly used to rain bullets on the surrounding neighborhood , judging by the bullet-holes that pock-marked surrounding buildings . They also scrawled graffiti on the walls proudly declaring `` We are the men of the special operations unit . '' In one hallway , they built a crude hearth out of bricks for cooking , and even left behind skewers used to grill meat . Residents told stories of atrocities , allegedly carried out by the security forces . An elderly woman who asked to only be called `` Um Abdulazim '' for security reasons , wept as she described how troops arrested , tortured , and then killed her 24-year-old son Qusay . `` My son was handicapped , and they ran a plow over his legs . They killed him and threw him into the street , '' she said , pointing to her head , chest , arm and hips were she said Qusay was shot . Um Abdulazim said the soldiers punished her family for providing food and shelter to anti-government demonstrators . `` He was handicapped . '' Referring to Bashar al Assad , she said , `` I hope his mother loses him . ... I hope he loses his sons . '' With the government 's forces gone , rebels now filled the security vacuum . During a brief visit , gunshots suddenly rang out when a prisoner briefly broke free from a group of rebels . `` Do n't kill me , for god 's sake . Please do n't kill me . For god 's sake , pardon me , '' the man screamed as fighters wrestled him back to their pickup truck . Later , rebels said the man was a looter who would be brought before a local legal council that has assumed security responsibilities in the opposition-controlled region . CNN journalists never saw what ultimately happened to the prisoner . Getting to know Syria 's first family . Ammar Cheikh Omar contributed to this report .
For months rebels have battled Bashar al Assad 's troops in Atareb , Syria . Fighters renamed stretch of highway in town of `` Street of Death '' Elderly resident says al Assad 's troops tortured and killed her handicapped son .