Islamist insurgents have entered the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to capture a vital site on the road to Damascus. the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s rule of the region.
Militants of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group entered the city from the east on Thursday after five days of fighting loyal to Assad’s forces and surrounded it.
“This victory will be without revenge and mercy,” said the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in a message to the people of Hama.
Syria’s defense ministry initially denied that rebels had entered Hama, calling its defensive lines “impregnable.” But as the battle intensified and drew closer to the center of the city, the Syrian army said it had withdrawn, deploying its forces “to protect the lives of civilians and not involve the city of Hama in these battles.”
Located on the road that runs to the western side of Syria towards the capital, Damascus, Hama was the site of a mass uprising against Assad in 2011, and then fiercely fought with opposing forces and could not take control of the city in the subsequent civil war. war
There is also a hook the famous place of the 1982 massacrewith forces loyal to President Hafez al-Assad besieging the former town to prevent an uprising by Sunni Muslims led by opponents of his rule.
The brutal raids led by HTS resulted in Assad losing control of Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, as well as swaths of the north-eastern region. The sudden losses seem to have destabilized longtime Assad supporters in Moscow and Tehran Russian forces were consumed by the invasion of Ukraine and Iran is concerned about targeted Israeli strikes on Syrian territory, which have increased over the past year.
Speaking for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was “closely monitoring” events in Syria. “According to the assessment of the situation, we will be able to talk about the level of assistance that is necessary for the Syrian authorities to face the militants and eliminate this threat,” he said.
Gregorius Aquis, a Syrian army analyst with the Middle East Institute, said a combination of morale, low pay, corruption and dysfunction in government links contributed to the sudden withdrawal of government forces from areas it has held for years.
The Syrian army, he said, was “completely unprepared” for the insurgents.
Amidst reports of a rise in deserters from the Syrian army or fighters fleeing their positions, Assad decided to raise the salaries of 50 military personnel earlier this week.
Military aid from Iran and Russia has been limited compared to previous iterations of the conflict in Syria, Waters said.
“I think it’s difficult to see a scenario where forces loyal to the regime in Damascus can regain momentum,” he said. “Even if the Russians and the Iranians or Iranian-backed forces are getting more involved, they’re still ending their wars. It feels likely that we’ll reach a level of support that we’ve seen before.”