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Syrian Insurgents Enter City of Hama 12/05 06:17
Syrian insurgents said they entered parts of the central city of Hama on
Thursday after three days of intense clashes with government forces on its
outskirts, part of an ongoing offensive in which they also seized Syria's
largest city of Aleppo.
BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian insurgents said they entered parts of the central city
of Hama on Thursday after three days of intense clashes with government forces
on its outskirts, part of an ongoing offensive in which they also seized
Syria's largest city of Aleppo.
Syrian state media confirmed violent clashes between government forces and
opposition gunmen on the eastern edges of Hama city but denied that the
insurgents had breached it. Hama is one of the few cities that remained under
full government control during Syria's conflict, which broke out in March 2011
following a popular uprising. Its capture would be a major setback for
President Bashar Assad.
The offensive is being led by the jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as well
as an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian
National Army. Their sudden capture of the northern city of Aleppo, an ancient
business hub, was a stunning prize for Assad's opponents and reignited the
conflict which had been largely stalemated for the past few years.
Aleppo's takeover marked the first opposition attack on the city since 2016,
when a brutal Russian air campaign retook it for Assad after rebel forces had
initially seized it. Intervention by Russia, Iran and Iranian-allied Hezbollah
and other militant groups has allowed Assad to remain in power.
The latest flare-up in Syria's long civil war comes as Assad's main regional
and international backers are preoccupied with their own wars.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the renewed fighting,
which began with the surprise opposition offensive Nov. 27.
The insurgents claimed on their Military Operations Department channel on
the Telegram app Thursday that they have entered Hama and are marching toward
its center.
"Our forces are taking positions inside the city of Hama," the channel
quoted a local commander identified as Maj. Hassan Abdul-Ghani as saying.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war
monitor, said gunmen have entered parts of the city, mainly the neighborhoods
of Sawaaeq and Zahiriyeh to the northwest. It added that gunmen are also on the
edge of the northwestern neighborhood of Kazo.
"If Hama falls, it means that the beginning of the regime's fall has
started," the Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Associated Press.
Hama is a major intersection point in Syria that links that country's center
with the north as well the east and the west. It is about 200 kilometers (125
miles) north of the capital, Damascus, Assad's seat of power. Hama province
also borders the coastal province of Latakia, a main base of popular support
for Assad.
The city's name is synonymous with the 1982 massacre of Hama, one of the
most notorious in the modern Middle East, when security forces under Assad's
late father, Hafez Assad, killed thousands to crush a Muslim Brotherhood
uprising.
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