Syrian rebels encircled the important thing central metropolis of Hama “from three sides” on Wednesday, a warfare monitor mentioned, regardless of a counteroffensive launched by authorities forces to retain management of the town.
Hama is strategically situated in central Syria and, for the military of Bashar al-Assad, is essential to safeguarding the capital and seat of energy, Damascus. The preventing round Hama follows a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels who in a matter of days wrested swathes of territory, most importantly Syria’s second metropolis, Aleppo, from the president’s grasp.
The rebels “have surrounded Hama metropolis from three sides, and at the moment are current at a distance of three to 4 kilometres (1.9 to 2.5 miles) from it”, mentioned the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Britain-based Observatory, which depends on a community of sources in Syria, mentioned the federal government forces have been “left with just one exit in the direction of Homs to the south”.
Key to the rebels’ successes because the begin of the offensive final week was the takeover of Aleppo, which in additional than a decade of warfare had by no means solely fallen out of presidency fingers.
The top of the Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, on Wednesday visited Aleppo’s landmark citadel.
Photos posted on the rebels’ Telegram channel confirmed Jolani waving to supporters from an open-top automotive as he visited the historic fortress.
In Hama, 36-year-old supply driver Wassim mentioned the sounds have been “actually terrifying” and the continual bombing was clearly audible.
“I’ll keep house as a result of I’ve nowhere else to flee to,” he mentioned.
Whereas the advancing rebels discovered little resistance earlier of their offensive, the preventing round Hama has been particularly fierce.
Assad ordered a 50% increase in profession troopers’ pay, state information company Sana reported, looking for to bolster his forces for the counteroffensive.
A navy supply cited by Sana had earlier reported “fierce battles” in opposition to the rebels in northern Hama province since morning, including that “joint Syrian-Russian warplanes” have been a part of the hassle.
The Observatory mentioned authorities forces introduced “massive navy convoys to Hama” and its outskirts within the earlier 24 hours.
“Dozens of vans” loaded with tanks, weapons, ammunition and troopers headed in the direction of the town, it mentioned, whereas “regime forces and pro-government fighters led by Russian and Iranian officers” repelled an assault north-west of Hama.
It mentioned the preventing was near an space primarily populated by Alawites, followers of the identical offshoot of Shia Islam because the president.
German information company DPA introduced the killing of award-winning Syrian photographer Anas Alkharboutli in an airstrike close to Hama.
The rebels launched their offensive on 27 November, the identical day a ceasefire took impact within the warfare between Israel and Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.
Each Hezbollah and Russia have been key backers of Assad’s authorities, however have been extra lately mired in their very own respective conflicts.
Russia, Iran and Turkey have been in “shut contact” over the battle in Syria, Moscow mentioned on Wednesday. Whereas Russia and Iran each again Assad, Turkey has backed the opposition.
The UN on Wednesday mentioned 115,000 folks had been “newly displaced throughout Idlib and northern Aleppo” by the preventing.
The Observatory says the violence has killed 704 folks, largely combatants but additionally 110 civilians.
Human Rights Watch on Wednesday warned the preventing “raises issues that civilians face an actual danger of significant abuses by the hands of opposition armed teams and the Syrian authorities”.
Rights teams together with HRW have because the begin of the warfare documented violations of human rights on each side, together with what they are saying might quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity by Syrian authorities forces.
Till final week the warfare in Syria had been largely static for a number of years, however analysts have mentioned violence was sure to flare up because it was by no means really resolved.
Spearheading the insurgent alliance is HTS, which is rooted in Syria’s al-Qaida department.
“It’s very nicely organised, very ideologically pushed,” mentioned Rim Turkmani, director of the Syria battle analysis programme on the London College of Economics.
“Nonetheless, they unfold in a short time and really skinny. And I feel in a short time they’re going to grasp it’s past their capability to take care of these areas and, most significantly, to manipulate them.”
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