Syrian rebels seize second largest city after army retreat

Syrian rebels  seize second  largest city after  army retreat
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A Syrian rebel fighter fires into the air in the city of Hama, Syria 
Syrian rebels  celebrate in the streets of Hama after Syrian  army retreat
Syrian rebels say they have taken full control of a second major  city after the  army withdrew its troops from Hama in  a fresh setback for President Bashar  al-Assad.
The leader of the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, declared  Hama a "victory" and vowed there would be "no  reprisals".
Earlier, HTS fighters and their allies  seized control of Hama's central prison and  freed prisoners amid  heavy fighting, while the  army said it had redeployed troops outside the  city.
Hama is home to one million people and is 110km south of Aleppo, which rebels  overran last week after launching a surprise offensive from their  northwestern stronghold.
A rebel commander told residents of Homs, the  southern city on the  Aleppo-Damascus highway, that "your time has  come." In the past, President Assad  has relied on Russia and Iran to  suppress his  opponents.
But with both allies preoccupied with their own affairs, it is unclear how  — or if  — he will be able to stop  a breakthrough that could threaten  the survival of his  government.
More than half a million people have been killed since a civil war erupted in 2011 after  Assad's government violently  suppressed peaceful pro-democracy  protests.
Map of Syria's control  (December 4, 2024)
Rebels have broken through  government defense lines north of Hama  after days of heavy  fighting.
The army had sent reinforcements to the city after the fall of Aleppo.  Despite support from Russian  airstrikes and  Iranian-backed militias, troops were unable to prevent  the capture of Hama on  Thursday.
Rebel commander Hassan Abdul Ghani said in the morning that  his fighters were engaged in  intense fighting in  several neighborhoods.
In the early afternoon, he announced that hundreds of  prisoners from  Hama Central Prison had been  released.
Minutes later, the  army announced the redeployment of troops outside Hama  "to preserve civilian  life and prevent urban  fighting."

Photos and videos posted online and verified by the BBC showed fighters in several  neighborhoods in the northeast. The  released detainees were also filmed celebrating  their release outside the central prison with a rebel and a  journalist from a  media outlet close to the opposition.
Abdul Ghani  later said: "We are happy to  report that Hama has been  fully liberated after our forces  completed their search operations."
He also said the rebels had cleared  Hama's military airport,  on the western  outskirts of the city, as well as Jabal Zain al-Abadin, a strategically important hill  in the  northeast that overlooks the Damascus-Aleppo  highway.
In a video, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said his fighters had entered Hama to  "cleanse the wound that has  lasted 40 years in  Syria."
"I pray to God  Almighty that it  will be  an invasion without revenge," he  added.
The HTS leader was referring to the  deaths of 10,000  to 25,000 people in the city in 1982, when  former President Hafez al-Assad sent tanks and artillery to crush an Islamist  uprising. Similar tactics have been  used across the country by his son, Bashar, over the past 13  years.
AFP A Syrian Kurdish woman holds a child in Tabqa after fleeing  northern Aleppo  (December 4, 2024) AFP
The UN says the escalation has displaced more than 280,000 people in  northwest Syria.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, says more than 820 people - most of them  fighters, but also 111 civilians - have been killed across the country since the rebel offensive  began eight days  ago. .
The UN said the fighting  had also  "exacerbated an already  dire situation for civilians in the north of the  country".
Some 280,000 people have been displaced, most of them women and children, and some civilians are trapped in  frontline areas, unable to reach safer  places.
In Aleppo, home to two million people, some public services and  essential facilities - including hospitals, bakeries, power  plants, water, internet and telecommunications - are disrupted or non-functional  due to lack of supplies and  personnel. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres  called on "all those with influence to do their  part" to end the civil  war.
"We are seeing the bitter fruits of a chronic collective failure of previous de-escalation  agreements to produce a genuine  national ceasefire or a serious political  process," he added.  "That has to change."
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President Assad has vowed to  "crush" the rebels and accused Western powers of trying to redraw the map of the region, while his key allies Russia and Iran have offered  "unconditional support."
Russian warplanes have  stepped up attacks on rebel-held areas in recent days,  Iranian-backed militias have sent fighters to  bolster government defense lines, and Iran has said it is ready to send additional forces to Syria if  needed. Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition but has denied  involvement in the HTS-led offensive, has urged Assad to engage in a political process with the opposition to end  Syria's 13-year civil  war.
Meanwhile, Turkish-backed rebel factions have  taken advantage of the  government's retreat in the north  to launch a separate offensive  in territory near Aleppo  held by  an alliance of Kurdish-led  militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Turkey, which has a large  and restive Kurdish minority,  views Syria's Kurds as a  threat.
AFP A rebel fighter covers his ears as a  multiple-barrelled missile is fired at government forces on the outskirts of the city of  Hama in central Syria  (December 4, 2024) AFP
The rebels  have been advancing on Hama from the north after  seizing the second city of Aleppo
Before the rebel  offensive began, the government had regained control of Syria's main cities with the help of Russia, Iran and  Iranian-backed militias. However,  much of the country  remains outside its control The  rebels' last stronghold was in  the provinces of Aleppo and  Idlib, on the border  with Turkey, home to more than four million  people, many of  whom had been displaced from government-held  areas.
The enclave was dominated by HTS, which is  considered a terrorist  organization by the UN,  the US, Turkey and other countries because it was  linked to al-Qaeda in Syria until it  officially severed its ties in  2016.
A number of allied rebel factions and jihadist groups were also based there,  as well as NSA factions  backed by Turkey and Turkish  forces.
HTS and its allies said on  November 27 that they had launched an offensive to  "repel aggression," accusing the government and allied militias  backed by Iran of  stepping up attacks on civilians in the  northwest.
But this came at a time when the government's allies were  worried about other  conflicts. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, which  played a crucial  role in the  fight against the rebels at the beginning of the war, has  recently suffered from  the Israeli offensive in Lebanon. Its new  leader, Naim  Qassem, said on Thursday that  he "stands with Syria to prevent as much as  possible the targets of this aggression."
Israeli strikes have also eliminated Iranian military commanders in Syria and degraded supply lines to pro-government  militias.
Russia is also distracted by the war in Ukraine.

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