Syrian rebels captured the key city of Hama on Thursday, bringing the insurgents a
major victory after a lightning advance across northern Syria and dealing a new blow to President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
The Syrian army said it was redeploying outside the city “to preserve civilians lives and prevent urban combat” after what it called intense clashes.
Rebels said they were preparing to keep marching south towards Homs, Syria’s great crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and coast.
“Your time has come,” said a rebel operations room in an online post, calling on city residents to rise up in revolution.
Al Jazeera television broadcast what it said were images of rebels inside Hama, some of them greeting civilians near a roundabout while others drove in military vehicles and on
mopeds.
The rebels took the main northern city of Aleppo last week and have since pushed south from their enclave in northwest Syria. Fighting has raged around villages outside Hama for two days.
The fall of Hama, which was in government hands throughout the civil war triggered by a 2011 rebellion against Assad, will send shock waves through Damascus and fears of a continued rebel march south.
Assad relied heavily on Russian and Iranian backing throughout the most intense years of the conflict, helping him to claw back most territory and the biggest cities before front
lines froze in 2020.
The collapse of pro-government forces in northern Syria over the past week underlines the problems that alliance has faced since.
Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which had been the most potent Iran-backed force in Syria, has suffered heavy losses in its own war with Israel.
As his forces swept into Hama, the main insurgent commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani issued a video statement warning against any involvement by the other main regional force that is aligned with Iran – Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi militias.
Some Iraqi fighters entered Syria early this week to support Assad, Iraqi and Syrian sources said. The Hashd al-Shaabi has mobilised along the border with Syria saying this was purely preventative in case of spillover into Iraq.
“We urge him (Iraq’s prime minister) again to keep Iraq away from entering into the flames of a new war tied to what is happening in Syria,” Golani said.
With Reuters inputs
