Syrian opposition forces enter Hama city after Assad's army collapses

The Syrian opposition forces announced entering the city of Hama and taking control of its neighborhoods, coinciding with the announcement by the Syrian regime's Ministry of Defense of its withdrawal from the city.

A short while ago, the Syrian armed opposition announced the "liberation" of Hama military airport and the control of the police headquarters building in the city.

The opposition said it had taken control of Hama Central Prison and released prisoners from it, and that "a number of military and security leaders affiliated with the Assad regime fled the city."

Later, the opposition said it had taken control of the Aqirbat area and its surroundings in the eastern Hama countryside.

The leader of the Military Operations Department, Hassan Abdul Ghani, said via the X platform: “Our forces entered Hama Central Prison and freed hundreds of wronged prisoners from it.”

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Video of the moments of the rebels storming Hama with tanks pic.twitter.com/Zjps4fpnXK

- Omar Madaniah (@Omar_Madaniah) December 5, 2024

The opposition forces reached the center of Hama city, and pictures from inside the city showed the opposition forces roaming several neighborhoods in the city and the residents welcoming them.

The armed opposition announced that its forces had entered the neighborhoods of Al-Arbaeen, Al-Mazarib, and Al-Sawaiq in Hama after battles with the Syrian regime forces.

In a speech, the commander of the Syrian opposition's military operations department, Abu Muhammad al-Julani, said that opposition fighters have begun entering the city of Hama. Al-Julani added that what he described as the conquest of the city of Hama "is not revenge," as he put it.

For his part, the leader of the Military Operations Department, Hassan Abdul Ghani, said via his account on social media, “Hama al-Fida; the criminal Hafez al-Assad entered it with tanks and stole it from its people, and today we entered it with tanks and are returning it to its people.”

"redistribution"

In contrast, the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that its forces had carried out a "redeployment and repositioning" outside the city of Hama "to preserve the lives of the city's civilians and not to involve them in the battles," it said.

The ministry said it would continue to "carry out its national duty to restore the areas that terrorist organizations entered," as it put it.

The Ministry of Defense statement also mentioned that a number of its soldiers were killed during clashes with what it described as "terrorist organizations that attacked the city of Hama from several axes and in large numbers, using all means and military equipment, and with the help of immersion groups."

A short while ago, the official Syrian news agency (SANA) quoted a military source as saying, "Our air defenses confronted hostile drones in the skies of the capital, Damascus, and shot down two of them."

In the Aleppo countryside, the Syrian armed opposition broadcasted images, which it said showed members of the regime forces being taken out by buses from the Al-Waha area in the city of Al-Safira, in the southern Aleppo countryside, to the city of Homs.

The opposition added that this happened after the negotiations with them ended, and an agreement was reached to hand over their weapons and move to Homs.

Since November 27, the Syrian opposition has been engaged in clashes with regime forces in several areas of the country. On Friday, it entered the city of Aleppo, and on Saturday it extended its control over Idlib province.

After completing control over Aleppo and Idlib, the opposition continued its advance towards Hama Governorate to control it.

Source: Agencies