Los syrian rebelsafter several days of intense fighting, confirmed this Thursday the capture of the city of Hamaone of the largest cities in the country and the second captured in the week of fighting that began on Wednesday of last week against the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Asad.
Hama, thus, joins Aleppoconquered by the opponents on Friday of last week without any response: the soldiers of the regime of Damascus —without his allies, lto Russian aviation and the Shiite militias supported by Iran— in a matter of hours they abandoned the second Syrian city, which was taken by the rebels with little opposition.
Hama, however, has resisted somewhat more, and the rebel offensive has been, in this city in the center of Syriaslower and bloodier than in the north. “During the last few hours, due to the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and the terrorists“These groups have been able to penetrate the city at several points, despite having suffered heavy losses,” the Syrian Army’s general command said Thursday afternoon, after two days of fighting in the city.
“To preserve the lives of the civilians of Hama and so that they are not affected by the fighting, the military units stationed there have been relocated to the outskirts of the city,” said the statement, which, of course, ignores that the majority of deaths civilians in the syrian civil war It has not been at the hands of the rebels and opponents but because of the Syrian regime and its ally in the skies, Russian aviation.
Hama, the fourth Syrian city behind Damascus, Aleppo and Homshas historically been one of the great rebel and opposition centers against the Assad government. In 1982, Bashar’s father, Hafez al Asad —Syrian president until his death, in 2000—, almost completely destroyed the city to end a revolt of the local Sunni population, led by the international brotherhood of the Muslim Brothers.
Hafez al-Assad was thereafter known as “the butcher of Hama.” The city was also one of the epicenters of large protests during the first years of syrian revolutionin 2011.
Three-way meeting
While the rebel offensive continues, thus, heading south, Russia confirmed this Thursday that a meeting will take place in the coming days – presumably in Doha, Qatar— between the Iranian, Russian and Turkish foreign ministers to discuss the Syrian issue. Türkiye is the main international supporter of the Syrian rebel militias, which are financed and armed by Ankara.
Now, these militias promise not to stop. As announced by the radical Islamist Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS)former subsidiary of Al Qaeda in Syria and the largest of the rebel groups, after taking Hama, the offensive continues in the direction of Homs, about 50 kilometers south of the recently captured city. From Homs to Damascus there is a distance of 160 kilometers.
