Why is the opposition seizing Hama in Syria so necessary? | Syria’s Warfare Information

Opposition fighters in Syria captured the strategic metropolis of Hama on Thursday in a matter of hours.

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which suggests the Committee for the Liberation of the Levant, led the offensive as they stormed town. Authorities forces shortly retreated.

Inhabitants appeared to welcome what many described as the liberation of their metropolis from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s clutches.

One HTS fighter, who didn’t need to give his title, informed Al Jazeera after coming into Hama: “Thank God we liberated the town of Hama, and now we’re securing it. With God’s blessing, we’ll enter the town of Homs subsequent.”

Analysts and observers consider antigovernment fighters might seize a lot of the nation; however, they say Hama has a selected worth for the Syrian opposition.

That is what we all know in regards to the strategic and symbolic significance of town.

Why is Hama so important in Syria?

Town witnessed one of the most vital brutal acts of repression in Syrian history, analysts and observers say.

In 1982, al-Assad’s father, Hafez, who was then president, ordered the killing of members of the Muslim Brotherhood who had been occupying town.

The focused individuals had been a part of a motion attempting to take away the al-Assads from energy and had taken over town after ambushing military troops.

They killed senior officers and leaders throughout the authorities and looted their properties, based on a report by the European Council for Overseas Relations, a think tank based mostly in the UK.

The group’s operations attracted widespread help and triggered an rebellion towards the federal government within the metropolis.

The federal government responded by bombing Hama for a number of days, whereas Syrian troops moved in to crush the rebellion.

Within the following weeks, Syrian forces laid siege to town, going door to door to kill, torture, and arrest any younger males they believed to be with the opposition, based on Amnesty Worldwide.

It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 individuals had been killed in Hama—the exact determination remains to be unknown.

“It was the attention of the mass arrests and executions that terrified individuals,” mentioned Robin Yassin-Kassab, a skilled on Syria and the co-author of Burning Nation: Syrians in Revolution and Warfare.

“[The episode] made Syria a kingdom of silence,” he informed Al Jazeera.

The 2011 Syrian rebellion momentarily shattered that barrier of concern.

As protests swept the nation, inhabitants of Hama gathered and sang “Yalla erhal ya Bashar,” which translates to “Come on and go away, Bashar!”

Protesters in Hama carried olive branches, and crowds reached greater than 500,000 individuals, activists informed Al Jazeera in 2011.

What did the Syrian regime do to Hama in 2011?

All throughout Syria, authorities forces violently repressed demonstrations in 2011, together with in Hama.

For greater than a decade, the regime barrel-bombed cities and arrested and tortured activists and perceived opponents.

The federal government usually relied on Alawi, in addition to Shia, armed teams, each from Syria and throughout the area, to crack down on protesters.

The Alawi sect in Syria is an offshoot of Shia Islam, to which al-Assad and his household belong.

Yassin-Kassab mentioned many consider the barrier of concern has been shattered for a second time after insurgent teams captured Aleppo and now Hama inside days.

In Hama, scenes of prisoners of conscience being liberated from the central jail prompted celebrations by Syrians.

Within the metropolis, inhabitants tore down a statue of Hafez al-Assad.

“I assumed Hama is the place [the government and its loyalists] would put up a critical battle… However, they weren’t successful,” mentioned Yassin-Kassab.

“After Hama [was liberated], I believed to myself: ‘The Syrian revolution is again.’”

Is Hama strategically necessary?

Very a lot so.

The seize of Hama permits insurgent teams to maintain transferring down the Aleppo-Damascus M5 freeway in direction of Homs, which, if captured, might cut up aside the regime’s strongholds.

Opposition fighters seem to have reached the outskirts of town based on stories, whereas hundreds of individuals have fled.

Homs has a bigger population of Alawis than Hama; however, HTS has reportedly supplied assurances that minorities in Syria are not going to be harmed.

Town is successfully a gateway to Syria’s capital, Damascus, in addition to the coastal provinces of Tartous and Latakia, which are Alawi heartlands and the place Russian naval and air bases are situated.

If Homs falls to the opposition, then opposition fighters are prone to push on to attempt to take Damascus, mentioned Yassin-Kassab.

“I do suppose if Homs falls, then that would be the starting point for the [Assad regime],” he informed Al Jazeera.