Surging Syrian rebels take key city of Hama, eye further advances as regime reels

The Syrian army on Thursday ceded control of the key city of Hama in the central part of the country after anti-regime rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had broken through government defenses.

The latest victory by the jihadist group known as HST came days after their forces seized Aleppo, part of a lightning advance that began just a week ago. Hama, the scene of a notorious 1982 government operation that crushed a previous revolt led by the Muslim Brotherhood, is located between Aleppo and President Bashar Assad’s power base in Damascus.

Syrian military officials said their troops had been holding back “violent and successive attacks” on Hama by HST forces for several days. On Thursday, the insurgents reportedly had managed to fight their way into the city despite taking heavy losses.

“To preserve the lives of the civilians of the city of Hamas and not get involved in the battles inside the city, the military units associated with it have repurposed and deployed outside the city,” the Syrian Defense Ministry said on its Facebook page.

As the government tries to organize a defensive line, the rebels’ next target could by Homs, which is just 25 miles to the south.

Video circulating online Thursday appeared to confirm that the insurgent forces had also taken a government military airport outside Hama, freeing prisoners held in a detention facility there.

About 900 U.S. military personnel are based in Syria as part of the U.S.-led counterterrorism mission targeting remnants of the Islamic State terror group. Defense Department officials said that American troops have no role in the ongoing civil war but they have been under sustained attack by Iranian-backed militants. 

On Thursday, a Pentagon spokesman said three U.S. personnel are being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury after their base near a gas field in northeastern Syria, came under attack earlier this week. U.S. forces responded, destroying three truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers, a T-64 tank, an armored personnel carrier, and mortars that presented “a clear and imminent threat to U.S. and coalition forces,” U.S. Central Command officials said.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said they are still assessing who was behind the attack but noted that Iran-backed militia forces as well as military units loyal to the Assad regime have been known to operate in the area.

“We won’t hesitate to take appropriate action to protect our forces if they are threatened,” Gen. Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.

Ambassador Robert Wood, the alternate U.S. representative at the United Nations, said the Biden administration has been closely following the unfolding situation in Syria. The Assad government, with the military backing of Iran and Russia, had appeared to have the clear upper hand in the civil war until the events of the past week.

Mr. Wood said the rebels appeared to take advantage of the government’s complacency and the fact that its key supporters in Moscow and Tehran were distracted by their own internal issues, including Russia’s ongoing war against neighboring Ukraine.

“For many years the Syrian government has been engaged in a civil war backed by Iran, Russia, and Hezbollah. All three of those actors have recently been distracted and weakened by conflicts elsewhere,” Mr. Wood said this week in an address at the U.N. “It is no surprise that we have seen actors in Syria try to take advantage of that over the past several days.”

The Biden administration has long opposed and tried to isolate the Assad regime, but has also expressed concerns about the insurgent forces and their possible links to radical Islamist groups.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other countries, launched its offensive in northern Syria on Nov. 27. It was the same day a ceasefire took effect in neighboring Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.

Russia, while preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, also expressed alarm at recent events in Syria.

Dmitry Peskov, the chief Kremlin spokesman, said Moscow was “closely monitoring” the rebels’ stunning advances in recent days.

“Depending on the assessment of the situation, we will be able to talk about the degree of assistance that is needed by the Syrian authorities to cope with the militants and eliminate this threat,” Mr. Peskov said.