Syrian rebel group captures Hama after capturing Aleppo
The Syrian government framed its withdrawal from Aleppo as strengthening its defenses elsewhere. However, the Islamic group that captured Aleppo made their way to Hama and recently captured it. The next city on the road to Damascus is Homs. If this Islamic group captures this city, it would be in position to cut Damascus off from the Mediterranean Sea. Both Russia and Iran ramped up their respective support for Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
From CNN:
Hama is the second major city the rebels have captured in their week-long offensive, which has thrown the Assad regime’s forces into disarray. After capturing Aleppo last week, the rebels swept south to Hama — and now are setting their sights on Homs, the next city south on the highway to the Syrian capital of Damascus.
“Our heroic people in Homs, your time has come,” a spokesperson for the rebels said Thursday.
The shock offensive delivered a huge blow to Assad and his backers in Iran and Russia, and has reignited a civil war that had been largely dormant for years. More than 300,000 civilians in Syria have been killed since the conflict erupted after Assad’s government tried to stamp out peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.
Hama is strategically located at a key crossroads in western-central Syria, providing direct supply lines between the capital Damascus and Aleppo. Rebels had been unable to capture the city since the start of the civil war.
Abu Mohammad Al Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) — the main rebel group leading the offensive — said his forces entered Hama to “cleanse a 40-year-old wound.”
Additional Reading:
Salem, M. & Kourdi, E. (2024, December 5). Syrian rebels capture second major city as army withdraws from Hama. CNN. Link.
Category: Middle East
Russian military support for Syria has evaporated and this is an unsurprising result.
Hama not surprised….
FWIW, AFAIK there are no good guys in this conflict.
If the Iran regime does somehow fall, I suspect the Syrian will fill the void with the exact same kind of radical islamic dictatorship.
I never thought I would look back on the Vietnam War fondly as being easier to understand than the shit in the Middle East…
Ain’t hard to understand the ME, Skiv…”once upon a time a dood named Cain picked up a rock and kilt a dood named Abel….” They have been killing one another ever since and will continue killing one another until the last two (2) standing pick up a rock…and both are dead.
Isn’t Cain damned to live forever? They’re not killing each other, the bad are killing the good and the good either flee or die.
Then, the bad try to kill the rest of us.
Like trying to understand how WW1 started.
In large part, competing mutual defense pacts.
Seems that all started with a pissed off Muzzie too..
24/7
It is amazing (?) how some things never change. Over 30 years ago, when I was on instructor duty, several field grade officers from Middle Eastern countries asked me what I thought of the events in their countries. I told them the parable of the scorpion and the crocodile: Once upon a time, a scorpion asked a crocodile to carry him across the Nile. I can’t swim, said the scorpion, and I must get across the river. I will not take you, said the crocodile, because when we get half way across you will sting me and I will die. I will not sting you, said the scorpion, because if I did you would die and I will drown. So the crocodile told the scorpion to climb on and they set off across the Nile. When they got halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the crocodile. Why did you do that, said the crocodile, now we will both die. It is the Middle East, answered the scorpion.
Each of the officers shook their heads in agreement.
I’ve always heard it as the scorpion and the frog. I’m unaware of any scorpion with a stinger capable of piercing a croc’s hide.
I think the one that stung me in Texas could. Two months later the wound still hadn’t healed. Of course, I was probably the only person in Alaska suffering from a scorpion sting.
Best case scenario. Assad is hung from a light pole. Hezbola, denied support from Syria and Iran is kicked out of Lebanon. With Assad gone, the victors in Syria start fighting each other, and the Syrian civil war continues. Israel, now able to concentrate its forces, erradicates Hamm
as. However, radical Islamic elements from Syria infiltrate Gaza and the West Bank and begin attacks on Israel
Short version….nothing changes but the names of the players.
If they no longer have anyone sponsor/buying weapons. They will have to go back to using rocks to kill each other. Way cheaper on us taxpayers.