Syrian opposition groups capture key city of Hama in fresh blow to Assad

Syrian opposition groups captured the key city of Hama on Thursday, bringing them 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, Reuters has reported. The Syrian army said that it was redeploying outside the city “to preserve civilians lives and prevent urban combat” after what it called intense clashes.

The opposition groups said that they were preparing to keep marching south towards Homs, Syria’s great crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and the coast. “Your time has come,” said an opposition 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 opposition fighters inside Hama, some of them greeting civilians near a roundabout while others drove in military vehicles and on mopeds. They took the main northern city of Aleppo last week and have since pushed south from their enclave in north-west Syria. Fighting has raged around villages outside Hama for two days.

The fall of Hama, which has been in government hands throughout the civil war raging since 2011, will send shockwaves through Damascus and fears of a continued opposition 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 the 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 opposition military 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 militia. Some Iraqi fighters entered Syria early this week to support Assad, said Iraqi and Syrian sources. The Hashd Al-Shaabi has mobilised along the border with Syria but claimed that this was purely a preventative move in case of spillover into Iraq.

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“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,” said Golani.

Hama lies more than a third of the way from Aleppo to Damascus and its capture would prevent any quick attempt by Assad and his allies to launch a counteroffensive against opposition gains of the past week. An opposition advance on Homs, 40km (24 miles) south of Hama, could cut Damascus off from the coastal region that is a stronghold of Assad’s Alawite sect, and where his Russian ally has a naval base and airbase.

“Assad now cannot afford to lose anything else,” said Jihad Yazigi, editor of the Syria Report newsletter. “The big battle is the one coming against Homs. If Homs falls, we are talking of a potential change of regime.”

Hama is also critical to control of two major towns with big minority religious communities: Muhrada, home to many Christians, and Salamiya, where there are many Ismaili Muslims.

Although Hama had not previously been taken by the opposition during the war, it was historically a centre of opposition to the Assad dynasty’s rule. In 1982, Muslim Brotherhood activists rose up in revolt there and the military under Hafez Al-Assad launched a devastating three-week assault that killed more than 10,000 people and would come to be seen as a model for Assad junior’s campaign against the opposition groups.

Golani referred to that bloody episode in his statement: “The revolutionaries have begun entering the city of Hama to cleanse that wound that has persisted in Syria for 40 years.” However, he added that opposition fighters taking Hama would not exact revenge for the events of 1982.

The most powerful rebel faction is the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the former al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Golani, its leader, has pledged to protect Syria’s religious minorities and has called on them to abandon Assad, but many remain fearful of the “revolutionaries”.

On Wednesday, Golani visited Aleppo’s historic citadel, a symbolic moment for opposition forces driven out of the city in 2016 after months of siege and intense fighting, their biggest defeat of the war. Aleppo was Syria’s biggest city before the war.

HTS and the other groups are trying to consolidate their rule in Aleppo, bringing it under the administration of the so-called Salvation Government they established in their north-western enclave. Aleppo residents have said that there are shortages of bread and fuel, and that telecoms services have been cut.

Turkey, which has designated HTS as a terrorist organisation, has long been the biggest external backer of other opposition factions and its role will be critical to the future of any enlarged insurgent region in Syria.

Ankara has denied having any role in the sudden sweep into Aleppo last week. It has maintained a military presence in northern Syria since 2016 and its stance will be critical for any expanded opposition enclave in the north.