The rebels managed to occupy the city of Hamá, which has a key position.
After occupying the key Syrian city of Hama, Islamist rebels toppled the statue of former president Hafiz Assad, the father of the current head of state, Bashar Assad, TASR reports, according to a Friday AFP report.
The machine’s mechanical arm toppled the statue amid joyous shouts of “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) and “Thank God” and shots being fired into the air, footage posted on social media showed on Thursday night. In other images from the AFP agency on Friday, a small truck can be seen dragging the huge head of the statue along the road.
The rebels occupied the strategic city of Hama in a lightning offensive and after this success in the city they shouted “freedom forever” from Assad. In addition to control over the city of Hama, the Syrian government also lost the city of two million people, Aleppo, last week.
The current president’s father came to power in a military coup in 1970, and his family from the Alawite religious group has ruled the country ever since. Bashar succeeded his father after his death in 2000. The war in Syria began 13 years ago after the suppression of anti-government protests and has grown into a complex conflict involving foreign armies and jihadists. More than half a million people lost their lives, another million fled from neighboring countries, which triggered a refugee crisis in Europe.
After four years of relative peace, the rebels started fighting in northwestern Syria on November 27. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the war from Britain, more than 800 people, mostly fighters, have been killed since it began. The toppling of Hafiz Assad’s statue in Hama was of great importance to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, as the rebels promised to overthrow the government of his son.
