Islamist insurgents have entered the Syrian city of Hama in a battle for a vital spot on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country.
The rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, formerly Al Qaeda, entered the city from the east this Thursday after surrounding it for five days of fighting against forces loyal to Assad.
“This victory will be vengeanceless and merciful,” HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a message to the people of Hama.
The Syrian Defense Ministry initially denied that insurgents had entered Hama, calling its defensive lines “impregnable.” But as fighting intensified and approached the center of the city, the Syrian army declared that it had withdrawn, redeploying its forces “to preserve the lives of civilians and not involve the population of the city of Hama in these fighting.”
Located on a highway that runs through western Syria towards the capital Damascus, Hama was the scene of massive uprisings against Assad in 2011 and later fierce fighting as opposition forces tried and failed to take over. with control of the city in the subsequent civil war.
Hama is also the scene of a notorious massacre in 1982, when forces loyal to former president Hafez al-Assad laid siege to the city to prevent an uprising led by Sunni Muslims opposed to his government.
The sweeping HTS-led offensive has seen Assad lose control of Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, as well as swaths of the country’s northeast. The sudden losses appear to have rattled long-time Assad supporters Moscow and Tehran, as Russian forces are busy invading Ukraine and Iran fears being targeted by Israeli airstrikes on Syrian territory, which have increased in the last year.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow is “closely monitoring” developments in Syria. “Based on the assessment of the situation, we will be able to discuss the degree of help that the Syrian authorities need to confront the militants and eliminate this threat,” he declared.
Gregory Waters, a Syrian military analyst at the Middle East Institute, said a combination of low morale, low wages, corruption and dysfunction in the chain of command had contributed to the sudden flight of government forces from areas they had controlled for years. .
In his opinion, the Syrian army “was not prepared at all” for the insurgent offensive.
Amid reports of an increase in desertions from the Syrian army or fighters fleeing their positions, Assad issued a decree earlier this week increasing the salaries of military personnel by 50%.
Military support from Iran and Russia has been limited compared to previous iterations of the conflict in Syria, Waters maintains.
“I think it is difficult to see a scenario in which forces loyal to the Damascus regime can regain momentum,” he says. “Even if the Russians and Iranian or Iranian-backed forces become more involved, they are still limited by their own wars. “It seems unlikely that they will reach the level of support we have seen previously.”
#Islamist #rebels #city #Hama #Syrian #Government #forces
