We drive very fast and only stop once at a government checkpoint under a bridge.
As he neared a government checkpoint, he found himself cornered by soldiers who were pursuing a young man.
The standoff at a government checkpoint seemed to symbolize the international paralysis over how to stem the bloodshed.
On Sunday afternoon, when the M23 halted their rapid advance, their checkpoint was just 100 yards from a Congolese government checkpoint on the edge of Goma.
In Friday's attack, near a government checkpoint, gunmen fired on a convoy of Rwandan peacekeepers escorting a water tanker near the northern town of Saraf Umra.
(Though one occupier, LaVoy Finicum, was shot dead when he drove his truck through a government checkpoint and allegedly refused to stop).
Fighting also broke out in the northern province of Badghis, where the governor said a Taliban force attacked a government checkpoint.
Pickup trucks zip in and out of the group's territory, and a government checkpoint a short drive away from the area acts as a friendly tour guide.
An hour later, they reached the last government checkpoint before rebel territory, at a roundabout nicknamed Death Square after a horrific car accident years ago.
On the route into Qaboun, a neighborhood less than two miles from the center of Damascus, the last government checkpoint in recent days was near the municipal building.
A few days ago, Jad al-Yamani, an activist in Homs, sent a message to rebel fighters that tanks were moving toward a government checkpoint.
