Keystone-SDA
Violent fighting on Tuesday pitted the Syrian army against a coalition of rebels led by radical Islamists. The latter are trying to advance towards the strategic city of Hama, in central Syria, according to an NGO.
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December 3, 2024 – 11:49
(Keystone-ATS) The rebels launched a dazzling offensive last week which allowed them to seize Aleppo, Syria’s second city, in the north, over which regime forces have completely lost control for the first time since the start of the war. civil war in 2011.
“Violent clashes are taking place in the north of the province of Hama”, while “Russian and Syrian aircraft carry out dozens of strikes” on rebel positions, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ( OSDH).
The latter were able to take control of several towns and villages in the Hama region, added the NGO based in the United Kingdom and which has a vast network of sources in Syria.
An AFP photographer saw dozens of abandoned Syrian army tanks and military vehicles on Tuesday morning on the road leading to Hama.
The army says it has sent reinforcements
The Syrian army announced that it had sent reinforcements to the region, which helped slow the progress of the rebels over the past two days.
According to the Syrian Ministry of Defense, “violent clashes” on Monday pitted the army, supported by Syrian and Russian airstrikes, “against terrorist organizations in the north” of Hama province.
“Popular base of the regime” threatened
“We are progressing towards Hama after having cleaned” the localities leading there, assured AFP a rebel fighter, introducing himself as Aboul Houda Sourani. Hama is a strategic city in central Syria, on the road linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus.
The progress of the rebels “threatens the popular base of the regime”, the surroundings of the city being populated by Alawites, the community from which President Bashar al-Assad comes, underlines to AFP Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the OSDH.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was “alarmed by the recent escalation of violence” in Syria and called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities”.
