Following a series of devastating defeats, Syrian government forces started a counteroffensive against Islamist-led rebels on Wednesday in the vicinity of the strategic city of Hama, according to a war monitor.
Because of its advantageous location in central Syria, Hama is essential to the army’s efforts to protect Damascus, the country’s capital and seat of government.
The conflict surrounding Hama comes after the Islamist-led rebels launched a swift onslaught and took large areas of land away from President Bashar al-Assad in a couple of days.
The capture of Aleppo, Syria’s second city, which has never been taken from the government in almost ten years of conflict, has been crucial to the rebels’ victories since the offensive began last week.
In Aleppo, a medical student told AFP that staff at the hospital where he worked were “largely absent, with departments working at 50 percent capacity”.
“We try to tend to emergency cases that come to the hospital, using medical supplies sparingly,” he said on condition of anonymity.
The combat surrounding Hama has been particularly intense, whereas earlier in their attack, the advancing rebels encountered little opposition.
In the 1980s, Assad’s father’s army massacred citizens of the city, allegedly because they were suspected of being members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Hama was the scene of some of the largest demonstrations early in the pro-democracy uprising that broke out in 2011 and ignited the civil war, and the wounds from the massacre that forced thousands of Syrians into exile have not fully healed after decades.
By Tuesday, rebel forces had reached the gates of Hama city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, as the fighting sparked a wave of displacement.
People were seen escaping the town of Suran, which is located between Aleppo and Hama, according to AFP photos. Many of them were taking anything they could fit in their cars.
With air assistance, “regime forces launched a counterattack” on the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels and affiliated factions in Hama province on Wednesday, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
Government forces pushed HTS away from the provincial capital by about 10 kilometres (six miles), the Observatory said, reporting fierce battles as rebels failed in their bid to capture an area near the city.
