Syrian rebels oust regime forces from key central city of Hama, on route to Damascus

Assad’s troops retreat from strategic city, which had remained in government hands throughout entire civil war, less than a week after Islamist forces took Aleppo

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi 5 December 2024, 3:25 pm Edit
Anti-government fighters pose for a "selfie" picture on a Syrian regime military aircraft at the Kweyris military airfield in the eastern part of Aleppo province on December 3, 2024. (Rami al Sayed/AFP)
Anti-government fighters pose for a "selfie" picture on a Syrian regime military aircraft at the Kweyris military airfield in the eastern part of Aleppo province on December 3, 2024. (Rami al Sayed/AFP)

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) — Syrian rebels ousted pro-government forces from Hama on Thursday, bringing the insurgents a major new victory after a lightning advance across northern Syria and dealing a new blow to President Bashar Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.

The Syrian army announced that the rebels had entered Hama after intense clashes and said it was redeploying outside the city “to preserve civilians’ lives and prevent urban combat.”

Rebels said they had taken districts in the city’s northeast and had seized the central prison, freeing detainees.

Al Jazeera television broadcast what it said were images of rebels inside the city, some of them meeting civilians near a roundabout while others drove in military vehicles and on mopeds.

In a video shared widely on social media, rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani, of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, a former Al Qaeda affiliate, said his fighters had seized Hama and called for there to be “no revenge” against pro-regime civilians.

The rebels took the main northern city of Aleppo last week and have since pushed south from their enclave in northwest Syria, reaching a strategic hill just north of Hama on Tuesday and advancing toward the city’s east and west flanks on Wednesday.

Hama had remained in government hands throughout the civil war, which erupted in 2011 as a rebellion against Assad. Its fall to a revived insurgency would send shockwaves through Damascus and its Russian and Iranian allies.

The city lies more than a third of the way from Aleppo to Damascus and its capture would open the road for a rebel advance on Homs, the main central city that functions as a crossroads connecting Syria’s most populous regions.

Inside Hama, the scene of an Islamist uprising that the Assad dynasty crushed in 1982, the internet was cut off and streets emptied on Wednesday according to a resident whose family remains in the city.

Hama is also critical to the control of two major towns with big minority religious communities, Muhrada, home to many Christians, and Salamiya where there are many Ismaili Muslims.

The return of full-blown civil war in Syria after years of frozen frontlines risks further destabilizing a region ablaze from conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.

At the height of the conflict a decade ago, regional and global powers backed rival forces across the country and the chaos created space for Islamic State to seize territory that it used as a launchpad for attacks around the world.

Advance

The most powerful rebel faction is the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Its leader Abu Mohammed al-Julani has pledged to protect Syria’s religious minorities and has called on them to abandon Assad, but many remain fearful of the insurgents.

On Wednesday, Julani visited Aleppo’s historic citadel, a symbolic moment for rebels who were driven out of the city in 2016 after months of siege and intense fighting, their biggest defeat of the war. Aleppo was Syria’s biggest city before the war.

HTS and the other rebel groups are trying to consolidate their rule in Aleppo, bringing it under the administration of the so-called Salvation Government they established in their northwestern enclave.

Aleppo residents have said there are shortages of bread and fuel, and that telecoms services have been cut.

Syrian Kurds fleeing areas north of Aleppo arrive in Tabaqah, on the western outskirts of Raqa, on December 3, 2024. (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

The rebel forces advancing on Hama have included a Turkey-backed insurgent coalition called the Syrian National Army, which holds a strip of territory along the Syrian-Turkish frontier, rebel sources said.

Turkey, which designates HTS as a terrorist organization, has long been the biggest external backer of other rebel factions and its role will be critical to the future of any enlarged insurgent region in Syria.

Ankara has denied having taken part in the rebels’ sudden sweep into Aleppo last week.

On the government side, Russia and Iran were crucial to Assad’s success in recovering most Syrian territory and all main cities from 2015 to 2020, and they have sworn to help him again.

But Moscow has been focused on the war in Ukraine, while Iran’s most important regional ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group that for years played a critical role shoring up Assad in Syria, has suffered heavy losses to Israel in Lebanon over the past two months of a 14-month conflict that Hezbollah initiated.

Russian airstrikes across rebel-held areas of northern Syria have sharply intensified over the past week. Iran-backed groups from Iraq reinforced frontlines after bringing fighters across the border on Monday, Iraqi and Syrian sources said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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