Beirut, Lebanon:
Islamist-led rebels captured the central Syrian city of Hama on Thursday in another blow to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, days after losing the country’s commercial hub Aleppo.
The rebels, led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), launched the attack just over a week after a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Assad’s ally Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
After overnight clashes, rebels stormed Hama “from various directions” and engaged in urban combat with Assad’s forces, according to the British-based war monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Later, the rebels announced the “complete liberation of Hama city” in a message on their Telegram channel.
Rebel fighters kissed the ground and fired a volley of celebratory gunfire as they entered Syria’s fourth-largest city.
Many residents gathered to welcome the rebel fighters. An AFP photographer saw some residents set fire to a giant poster of President Bashar al-Assad in front of City Hall.
The military admitted it had lost control of the city, which is strategically located between Aleppo and Damascus, President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power.
Defense Minister Abbas insisted the troop withdrawal was a “temporary tactical measure”.
“Our forces are still nearby,” he said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.
– “Big blow” –
Aaron Rand, a fellow at think tank Century International, said the loss of Hama was a “massive, massive blow to the Syrian government” because the military was in a good position to reverse rebel gains there. It was supposed to be done, but he said, “I couldn’t do it.” .
He said the HTS would now try to advance toward Syria’s third-largest city, Homs, about 40 kilometers to the south, but images on social media showed many residents had already left Homs on Thursday. was.
Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman reported a mass exodus of members of Assad’s minority Alawite community from the city.
He said tens of thousands of people were heading to Syria’s Mediterranean region, where Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, make up the majority.
“We are afraid and concerned that what happened in Hama will be repeated in Homs,” said a civil servant who gave his name only as Abbas.
“I’m worried that they (rebels) will take revenge on us,” said the 33-year-old.
Syria’s civil war had been largely dormant for years until last week, but analysts say no real resolution has been reached and a restart is inevitable.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the flare-up reflected “the bitter fruits of the chronic collective failure of previous de-escalation arrangements”.
In a video posted online, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, referring to the 1982 crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, said the fighters were working to “heal the wounds they have endured for 40 years in Syria.” It said it had entered Hama, resulting in thousands of people being killed. Deaths (number)
“I pray to Almighty God that it will be a conquest without revenge,” he added.
In a subsequent telegram celebrating the “victory of the people of Hama,” he used his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, for the first time, rather than Deguerre.
~Fierce battle~
The Observatory said 826 people have been killed in Syria since the violence erupted last week, mostly combatants but also 111 civilians.
This was the heaviest fighting since 2020 in the civil war that began with the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in 2011.
Seizing Aleppo has been key to the rebels’ success since the offensive began last week, but in more than a decade since the war began, Aleppo has never completely fallen from government hands. There was none.
The advancing rebels encountered little resistance in the early stages of the attack, but the fighting around Hama was particularly intense.
The Observatory reported that 222 people have died in Hama province since Tuesday evening, four of them civilians.
President Bashar al-Assad has ordered a 50% pay hike for professional soldiers as he seeks to build up his military in preparation for a counterattack, state news agency SANA reported on Wednesday.
The Observatory said the rebels drove back the Syrian army despite the government sending a “massive military force.”
Risk of “abuse”
The rebels launched an offensive in northern Syria on November 27, the same day a ceasefire went into effect in the war between Israel and neighboring Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Hezbollah and Russia are both important backers of the Assad regime, but have been mired in their own conflicts in recent years.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qasem said Thursday that his group’s fighters “are on the side of Syria to thwart as much as possible the objectives of this invasion.”
Human Rights Watch warned that the fighting “raises concerns that civilians face a real risk of serious abuses at the hands of rebel groups and the Syrian government.”
HTS’ roots lie in the al-Qaeda branch in Syria.
The group has sought to soften its image in recent years, but experts say it faces difficulties convincing the West that it has completely abandoned its hard-line jihadism. are.
The United States maintains several hundred troops in eastern Syria as part of a coalition formed against Islamic State jihadists.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
