ANOTHER city falls to Islamist rebels in Syria as Assad’s forces flee Hama as the rebels’ lightning offensive continues, days after capturing Aleppo
Islamist-led rebels have taken another town in Syria, overrunning Assad’s forces in the city of Hama as the insurgents continue their surprise offensive.
The rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) stormed the city of just under a million inhabitants and claimed to have taken the prison and released prisoners after heavy fighting.
After a night of violent clashes, rebels entered Hama “from different sides” and engaged in street battles with Assad’s forces, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British war monitor.
Early Thursday afternoon, the Syrian army admitted it had lost control of the strategically located city seen as crucial in its efforts to protect the capital and seat of power, Damascus.
“In recent hours, with the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and terrorist groups… these groups have managed to break through a number of axes in the city and enter it,” the army said, adding that units were stationed outside had moved the city. .
The fall of Hama came despite shelling and attacks by the Syrian and Russian air forces, as reported by state media late Wednesday.
Maya, a 22-year-old student who gave only her first name for safety reasons, said she and her family stayed home as the fighting raged outside.
“We have been hearing the sounds of explosions and grenades non-stop,” she told AFP by telephone from Hama.
A multi-barrel rocket launcher fires at regime forces in the northern outskirts of the west-central city of Hama on December 4, 2024
Anti-government fighters rest in a position in the northern outskirts of the west-central city of Hama in Syria on December 4, 2024
A Syrian Kurdish woman, fleeing from northern Aleppo, stands leaning on a bullet-riddled wall as she arrives in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, on December 4, 2024
“We don’t know what’s happening outside.”
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, says 727 people, mostly fighters but also 111 civilians, have been killed in Syria since violence broke out last week.
It marks the most intense fighting since 2020 in a country already wracked by a civil war that erupted with the suppression of pro-democracy protests in 2011.
The key to the rebels’ successes since the offensive began last week has been the takeover of Aleppo, which had never completely fallen out of government hands in more than a decade of war.
The head of HTS, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, visited Aleppo’s historic citadel on Wednesday.
Jolani was seen waving to supporters from an open-top car as he visited the historic fortress, in footage posted on the rebels’ Telegram channel.
Although the advancing rebels encountered little resistance earlier in their offensive, the fighting around Hama was particularly fierce.
Assad has ordered a 50 percent pay increase, state news agency SANA reported, as he tries to strengthen his forces for the counter-offensive.
A Syrian Kurdish woman, fleeing northern Aleppo, waits with a child on the street as she arrives in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, on December 4, 2024
An anti-government fighter carries a missile that could be used against regime forces, in the northern outskirts of Syria’s west-central city of Hama on December 4, 2024
The rebels launched their offensive in northern Syria on November 27, the same day a ceasefire came into effect in the war between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
According to the Observatory, Syrian forces were pushed back by the rebels despite the government sending “large military convoys.”
The monitor said the fighting took place Wednesday near an area populated mainly by Alawites, followers of the same offshoot of Shiite Islam as the president.
The rebels launched their offensive in northern Syria on November 27, the same day a ceasefire came into effect in the war between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Both Hezbollah and Russia have been key supporters of Assad’s government, but have recently become embroiled in their own conflicts.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that 115,000 people had been “newly displaced in Idlib and northern Aleppo” by the fighting.
Human Rights Watch warned that the fighting “raises concerns that civilians are at real risk of serious abuse from armed opposition groups and the Syrian government.”
Until last week, Syria’s war had been largely dormant for years, but analysts said violence would inevitably flare up because it was never truly resolved.
Armed groups opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime continued their advance as they captured another 20 settlements in Syria’s western Hama province on December 4, 2024.
Military reinforcements are on their way from Idlib to control Hama’s fronts as armed groups opposing Bashar al-Assad’s regime captured another 20 settlements in Syria’s western province of Hama on December 4, 2024.
Smoke rises as a member of the rebels led by the Islamic militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rides a motorcycle in al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria, November 29, 2024
The spearhead in the rebel alliance is HTS, which has its roots in the Syrian Al-Qaeda branch.
“HTS has had a lot of time, space and resources to organize itself and prepare for this,” said analyst Sam Heller of the US-based think tank Century Foundation.
How the fighting unfolds now “depends on whether the Syrian government can regain its position,” Heller said.
“Opposition forces currently moving south are likely to find themselves trapped somewhere in central Syria if they encounter truly motivated and persistent loyalist resistance,” he said.
“At that point, the question will be whether Damascus has the resources to mount the kind of scorched-earth counteroffensive it would like to carry out.”