Alex
MacDonald and Harun al-Aswad
Syrian
rebels have taken control of the central city of Hama as their shock advance
across the country continues.
An anti-government fighter covers his ears as a multi-barrel rocket
launcher fires against government forces, in the northern outskirts of
Syria's west-central city of Hama on 4 December 2024 (Bakr al-Kassem /
AFP)
The
Syrian army announced it was no longer in control of the city on Thursday,
while an activist group said the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham-led fighters released
hundreds of prisoners from Hama prison.
"Over
the past few hours, with the intensification of confrontations between our
soldiers and terrorist groups... these groups were able to breach a number of
axes in the city and entered it," the army said.
It
added that "military units stationed there have redeployed" outside
the city.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group monitoring the war,
earlier said there was "street fighting against regime forces in a number
of areas" across the city.
"Our
forces entered and liberated vast neighbourhoods in the city, and the enemy
forces are collapsing,” rebel commander Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghani
told Middle East Eye.
"We
seized the main police department in the centre of the city and the general
prison, and liberated many prisoners. The clashes are ongoing to liberate the
entire city in the coming hours.”
Rebel
fighters, led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have seized large swathes of
territory, including Syria's second city Aleppo, since launching a surprise
offensive last week.
According
to the Observatory, 727 people - mostly combatants but also 111 civilians -
have been killed in Syria since the offensive began.
Russia
has launched air strikes on rebel forces in an attempt to bolster President
Bashar al-Assad's forces, who have struggled to halt the rebels' progress.
Onwards
to Homs?
Rebel
forces are now eyeing Homs, a city that played an important part in the
pro-democracy revolution in 2011 that spiralled into civil war. Some former
rebels in Talbiseh, a town in the city's northern suburbs, pledged their
loyalty to HTS in recent days.
Despite
promises to protect Syria's diversity, religious minorities have expressed
concerns about HTS's former affiliation to al-Qaeda, while Kurdish residents
fear the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) which has also participated
in the rebel advance.
In
a video address on Thursday, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani announced that
the "revolutionary forces" had entered Hama.
"I
pray to God Almighty that this will be a victory full of mercy and kindness,
free from revenge," he said.
Hama
has symbolic value for many due to its history as a stronghold of opposition to
Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez al-Assad.
In
1982, following an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood in the city, Hafez
al-Assad launched a brutal campaign of repression, killings and air strikes
that left 20,000-40,000 people dead.
Jihad
Yazigi, editor-in-chief of the Syria Report, told MEE that the loss of Hama
also virtually guaranteed that any government hopes it could retake Aleppo were
over.
"In
Syria, people tend to call every single village and town 'strategic'. Not
everything is strategic - but I think the importance of the fall of Hama is
that it puts the regime in a situation where it cannot retreat anymore,"
he explained.
After
the fall of Hama, Homs remains as Damascus's last line of defence, and while
its fall would not necessarily be "existential" for the Assad
government, Yazigi argued it would likely push the president's allies Russia
and Iran to demand meaningful change "because they would be afraid to lose
everything".
"Hama
is not strategic, but Homs is because it connects Damascus with the coastal
area, which is the core of the loyalist base, and for the Iranians losing Homs
means potentially losing access to Lebanon," he said.
'Different
reactions'
Homs
is the last major government-held stronghold before the capital Damascus and
its fall would leave the Assad government vulnerable.
UN
Syria envoy Geir Pedersen on Wednesday said the latest developments had
provoked "different reactions among the Syrian people, a grave threat for
some, a sign of hope for others", and stressed the need to protect
civilians.
Images
released on social media showed rebel supporters celebrating in Hama, while
members of the exiled opposition praised the capture of the city as a possible
stepping stone to Assad's eventual overthrow.
On
Thursday, the Chinese embassy in Syria said its citizens should leave the
country as soon as possible.
China
has been one of the few members of the international community that has
supported Assad since the outbreak of war and one of the few countries the
Syrian president has visited abroad since 2011.
China's
foreign ministry said on Monday that it "supports Syria's efforts to
maintain national security and stability".
Syria's
war, which broke out after government forces opened fire on pro-democracy
protesters, has killed more than half a million people. Around 12 million
people remain displaced by fighting and repression, half outside the country.
UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday said the ongoing
"carnage" in Syria was the result of a "chronic collective
failure" to initiate a political process in the country since 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment