Days after taking control of Aleppo, the nation’s commercial center, in a lightning-fast attack on President Bashar al-Assad’s army, Syrian rebel fighters on Thursday took control of the central city of Hama.
Little over a week ago, as a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Assad’s ally in Lebanon, came into effect, the rebels, led by the organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began their onslaught.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, the rebels assaulted Hama “from several sides” and fought Assad’s soldiers in the streets after nocturnal skirmishes.
The rebels claimed to have taken control of Hama’s prison and freed its prisoners. The city, which is well situated between Aleppo and Assad’s stronghold in the capital Damascus, was acknowledged to be lost by Syria’s army by the afternoon.
The army claimed in a statement that units had redeployed outside of Hama. “With the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and terrorist groups over the past few hours… these groups were able to breach a number of axes in the city and entered it,” the statement read.
HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani claimed in an online video that his soldiers had infiltrated Hama in order to “cleanse the wound that has endured in Syria for 40 years,” alluding to a 1982 crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood that claimed hundreds of lives.
He continued, “I pray to God Almighty that it is a conquest without retaliation.”
According to state media late on Wednesday, the city fell quickly in spite of shelling and raids by Russian and Syrian air forces.
As the battle continued outside, Maya, a 22-year-old student who only revealed her first name because of security concerns, said earlier Thursday that she and her family were staying at home.
She told AFP over the phone from Hama, “We have been hearing the sounds of explosions and shelling non-stop.” “We have no idea what’s happening outside.”
A rebel leader visits the citadel.
Since the violence started last week, 727 people—mostly combatants but also 111 civilians—have died in Syria, according to the Observatory, which is based on a network of sources in the country.
In a nation already devastated by civil war, which started in 2011 with the suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, it is the worst conflict since 2020.
The capture of Aleppo, which had never completely left government control in almost ten years of conflict, was crucial to the rebels’ victories since the offensive began last week.
Images of HTS head Jolani waving to fans from an open-top car during his Wednesday visit to Aleppo’s historic citadel were shared on the rebels’ Telegram channel.
The combat surrounding Hama has been particularly intense, whereas earlier in their attack, the advancing rebels encountered little opposition.
According to the state news agency SANA, Assad authorized a 50% pay increase for professional soldiers in an effort to prepare his forces for the counteroffensive. The Observatory claims that even though the government sent in “large military convoys,” rebels forced the Syrian armed forces back.
According to the monitor, the violence on Wednesday took place near a region that is primarily inhabited by Alawites, who share the president’s affiliation with a branch of Shia Islam.
“A counteroffensive with scorched earth”
On November 27, the day a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon went into force, the rebels began their onslaught in northern Syria.
Although they have been embroiled in their own wars more lately, Russia and Hezbollah have both been vital supporters of Assad’s regime.
On Wednesday, the UN said that the violence had “newly displaced 115,000 people across Idlib and northern Aleppo.”
The conflict “raises concerns that civilians face a real risk of serious abuses at the hands of opposition armed groups and the Syrian government,” Human Rights Watch cautioned.
HTS, which has roots in Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, is leading the rebel alliance. Analyst Sam Heller of the US-based Century Foundation think tank stated, “HTS has had a lot of time, space, and resources to organize itself and to prepare for this.”
Heller stated that the current course of the conflict “depends on whether the Syrian government can regain its footing.”
“Opposition forces that are currently moving south will probably encounter extremely motivated and unbeatable loyalist resistance somewhere in the center of Syria,” he stated.
“The question at that point will be whether Damascus has the resources to launch the kind of scorched-earth counteroffensive that I presume it would like to carry out.”
