Syria: Rebels “at the gates” of Hama, the population flees

The rebels who are leading an offensive in northern Syria arrived Tuesday “at the gates” of Hama, the country’s fourth city, according to an NGO, where fighting pitted them against the army, supported by the Russian air force and by significant reinforcements.

The army reported “fierce fighting”, particularly in the north of Hama province, while “significant reinforcements” arrived in the city, according to a military source cited by the official Sana agency.

Clouds of black smoke rose from the town of Souran, about 20 kilometers north of Hama, where AFP images showed civilians fleeing, crammed into trucks and trailers, while rebel fighters , brandishing their weapons, patrolled in pick-ups.

In Halfaya, a neighboring town, rebels were firing rocket launchers. Others, on mopeds, made the V for victory passing near the tanks abandoned by the Syrian army.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said Tuesday evening that the rebels had arrived “at the gates” of Hama, a strategic city in the center of the country located between Aleppo and the capital Damascus, and had bombed certain neighborhoods.

According to the OSDH, an NGO based in the United Kingdom which has a vast network of sources in Syria, the fighting on the outskirts of Hama has caused “a significant wave of displacement”. These fighting, which left 602 dead in one week, including 104 civilians, according to the OSDH, are the first of this magnitude since 2020 in this country ravaged by civil war.

As of Saturday, more than 48,500 people had been displaced in the regions of Aleppo and neighboring Idlib, more than half of them children, according to the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (Osha ).

A coalition of rebels dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, launched a dazzling offensive in north-west Syria on November 27, seizing dozens of localities and a large part of Aleppo, the country’s second city, before continuing its progression towards the south.

The Syrian army, which had not put up significant resistance in Aleppo, announced on Tuesday that it was striking “terrorist organizations, their positions and their bases” in the Hama region and in the province of Idlib, further to the south. north, with Syrian and Russian air support.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country is Damascus’ main ally with Iran, said Tuesday he wanted a “rapid” end to the rebel offensive, during a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Iran has said it is ready to “study” any sending of troops to Syria if this country requests it.

For the first time since the start of the civil war in 2011, the regime has completely lost control of Aleppo, a city of around two million inhabitants, taken by the rebels with the exception of its northern Kurdish neighborhoods.

In Idlib, which Syrian and Russian planes bombed in response to the offensive, AFP images showed rescuers searching the rubble of razed buildings. The UN reported Tuesday “numerous civilian casualties, including a large number of women and children” in attacks by both camps and the destruction of health facilities, schools and markets.

The United States, at the head of an international anti-jihadist coalition in Syria, on Monday urged “all countries” to work for “de-escalation”, as did the European Union, which “condemned” the Russian strikes “ in densely populated areas.

Hostile to the Syrian regime, Qatar judged on Tuesday that military action could not resolve the crisis and indicated that it was providing humanitarian aid to the Syrians in coordination with Turkey, a major ally of the rebels.

Russia accuses Ukraine of supporting Islamist group leading rebellion