Syria’s military has announced its withdrawal from Hama, a city of both symbolic and strategic importance in central Syria.
This marks the second significant success for a newly formed rebel coalition that also seized control of Aleppo last week.
According to a statement from the Syrian army, as reported by the state news outlet SANA, the military’s position became untenable after intensified clashes with what they described as “terrorist groups,” which led to the city being penetrated and several soldiers becoming martyrs.
Rebel forces reported liberating hundreds of individuals they claim were “wrongfully detained” from the central prison in Hama. Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, was reclaimed by rebel factions after a surprise offensive that overwhelmed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and his allied militias.
This reversal marked a significant blow to Assad and his backers, Iran and Russia, reigniting a civil war that had seemed to be subsiding in recent years.
Hama holds considerable strategic value, situated at a key junction in western-central Syria, ensuring direct supply routes between Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo. The city had been a target that rebels failed to capture since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2011.
The leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, the primary rebel group leading the offensive, Abu Mohammad Al Jolani, described their entry into Hama as an effort to “cleanse a 40-year-old wound.”
This is a reference to the city’s historical significance, having been the site of a brutal massacre in 1982, when President Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, ordered military action to crush a rebellion, resulting in a death toll of between 10,000 and 25,000, according to a 1983 Amnesty International report.
HTS was formed by Jolani in 2017 after splitting from al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front, over ideological differences. While Jolani has tried to recast HTS as a moderate Islamist group, it was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States in 2018, which also placed a $10 million bounty on his head.
The rebels have vowed to push forward to the city of Homs, which lies about 165 kilometers (100 miles) from Damascus.
A spokesperson for the rebel forces, Hassan Abdulghani, urged the people of Homs to rise up, declaring, “Our heroic people in Homs, your time has come. Declare it a revolution against oppression and tyranny.”
Syria’s civil war began in 2011 as a response to the government’s crackdown on protests during the Arab Spring, with the country descending into full-scale conflict as the movement evolved into an armed rebellion. Hama was also one of the early locations of protests against Assad’s regime during the Arab Spring.
