AMMAN/BEIRUT--Syrian rebels captured the city of Hama on Thursday, a major victory in a week-old lightning advance across northern Syria and a devastating new blow to President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
After years locked behind frozen frontlines, the rebels have burst forth to mount the swiftest battlefield advance by either side since a rebellion against Assad descended into civil war 13 years ago. The capture of Hama gives them control of a strategic central city they never managed to seize before.
The Syrian army said it was redeploying outside the city "to preserve civilian lives and prevent urban combat" after what it called intense clashes.Rebels were seen on television parading through Hama into the evening to the sound of celebratory gunfire. Other footage showed detainees pouring out of the city prison after rebels freed them.
The insurgents said they were ready to march on south towards Homs, a crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and to the coast. "Your time has come," said a rebel operations room in an online post, calling on Homs residents to rise up in revolution.
Al Jazeera television broadcast images of rebels inside Hama, some of them greeting civilians near a roundabout while others drove in military vehicles and on mopeds. The rebels took the main northern city of Aleppo last week and have since pushed south from their enclave in northwest Syria. Fighting has raged around villages outside Hama for two days but once rebels entered the city the battle ended in hours.
The collapse of Syrian government control in the north has sharply illustrated a shift in the balance of power since Lebanon's Hezbollah group, a lynchpin of Assad's battlefield force, suffered catastrophic losses in its war with Israel.Assad relied heavily on Russian and Iranian backing during the most intense years of the conflict, helping him to claw back most territory and Syria's biggest cities before front lines froze in 2020.
But Russia has been focused on the war in Ukraine since 2022, and many in the top leadership of Hezbollah, the most powerful Iran-aligned force, were killed by Israel over the past two months. The group's new leader, Naim Qassem, pledged to stand by Syria in a television statement.
The main insurgent commander,Abu Mohammed al-Golani, declared full rebel control over Hama on Thursday and issued a video statement warning against any involvement by another Iran-aligned force - Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary coalition.
