Hama city falls to HTS as Syrian army flees

Alameen Templeton
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham mercenaries have entered the city of Hama Thursday after days of intense clashes with government forces as they push forward with their week-long offensive that brought large parts of Syria under their control.
Associated Press reports the Syrian army admitted it had withdrawn from Hama after insurgents broke through its defenses marking another setback for President Bashar Assad, days after losing Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city.
The Syrian army said it withdrew from Hama to prepared positions outside the city to protect the lives of civilians.
Homs is likely to be their next target, if they can hold onto Hama, AP reports. Homs, which is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hama, is the gate to the capital Damascus, Assad’s seat of power and the coastal region that is a base of support for him.
Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the de facto HTS leader announced in a video message the mercenaries had reached Hama in a “conquering that is not vengeful, but one of mercy and compassion.”
The Syrian army said an undisclosed number of troops were killed after resisting the mercenaries for days. It accused the attackers of relying on suicide attacks to break through the defenses.
Britain’s Syrian Observatory for Human Rights — a war monitor run by MI6 — said the mercenaries now control the police headquarters in the city as well as the sprawling air base and the central prison from where hundreds of detainees were freed.
“If Hama falls, it means that the beginning of the regime’s fall has started,” the Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, told The Associated Press before the city’s capture.
Hama is one of the few cities that remained under full government control during Syria’s conflict. Its capture is a major setback for President Bashar Assad.

Gregory Waters, an analyst of the Syrian army with the Middle East Institute, told The Guardian a combination of low morale, low pay, corruption and dysfunction within the chain of command had contributed to the sudden rout of government forces.

The Syrian army, he said, was “completely unprepared”, for the HTS offensive, despite an announcement last week al-Assad had increased military salaries by 50%.

Military support from Iran and Russia has been limited when compared with previous iterations of the conflict in Syria, said Waters.

“Even if the Russians and Iranian or Iranian-backed forces get more involved, they’re still limited by their own wars. It feels unlikely to reach the level of support we’ve seen previously.”