Syrian government forces and rebels are fighting outside the city of Hama

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are reported to have clashed with rebels on the outskirts of the capital Hama.

The monitoring group said on Tuesday evening that the Islamic terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies were “at the gates of Hama”, but on Wednesday they said that the army had recaptured several villages during an offensive backed by intense airstrikes. .

Syrian media also said the army had pushed back rebels in the north of the city, but the rebels denied any losses there.

Hama is 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Aleppo, which rebels captured last week after a surprise attack on their northwest stronghold.

The state-run news agency Sana and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, both reported heavy fighting on Wednesday morning near Jabal Zain al-Abadin, a hill five kilometers (3 miles) to the northeast. of Hama.

SOHR said the clashes occurred after government forces launched an offensive, where they were able to push back the rebels about 10km from the city and capture two villages near the hill.

The rebel spokesman “Military Operations Division” accused the army of spreading rumors to raise the morale of the soldiers and insisted that the rebels still control all the areas they have recently taken.

An affiliate news channel said five other villages east of Hama were captured, as well as the base of the 25th Special Missions Forces Division.

On Tuesday, SOHR reported a “massive displacement” of Hama, home to about one million people, after rebels reached the outskirts of the city and several civilians were wounded by their shelling.

Wassim, a truck driver who lives in the city, told AFP: “The sounds were really scary, and the bombardment was very loud”.

But he added: “I will stay at home because there is nowhere else I can run to.”

SOHR said more than 600 people have been killed, including 107 civilians, and tens of thousands have been displaced since the rebel attack began last Wednesday.

The United Nations has expressed alarm at the sudden escalation of Syria’s devastating, 13-year civil war and warned that the situation is “very tense and dangerous”.

“If we don’t see the ups and downs of a serious political process, involving Syrian parties and key international players, I’m afraid we will see the deepening of this crisis,” special envoy Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council. Council on Tuesday.

“Syria will be at great risk of division, collapse and destruction.”

President Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels and accused the West of trying to redraw the map of the region, while his key allies Russia and Iran have offered “unconditional support”.

Russian warplanes have stepped up their strikes on rebel-held areas in recent days, Iran-backed forces have sent fighters to bolster government defenses around Hama, and Iran has said it is ready to send more troops to Syria if requested.

Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition but has denied reports that it is involved in attacks led by HTS, has urged Assad to engage in a political process with the opposition to end Syria’s 13-year civil war.

Turkish-backed rebel groups have contributed to the government’s retreat in the north by launching separate attacks on an area near Aleppo that was controlled by the Kurdish-led coalition, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

More than half a million people have been killed since civil war broke out in 2011 after Assad’s government violently crushed peaceful pro-democracy protests.

Before the rebel offensive began, the government had regained control of Syria’s major cities with the help of Russian, Iranian and Iranian forces. However, large parts of the country remained ungovernable.

The rebels’ last base is in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, which border Turkey and are home to more than four million people, most of whom were displaced from government-held areas.

The Enclave was occupied by HTS, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the UN, the US, Turkey and other countries because it was affiliated with al-Qaeda in Syria until it officially severed ties in 2016.

A number of allied rebel and jihadist groups were also based there, as well as Turkish-backed SNA groups and Turkish forces.

In 2020, Turkey and Russia established an agreement to stop the government’s pressure to return the region. That led to a lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, airstrikes and bombings continued.

HTS and its allies said last Wednesday they had launched a campaign to “stop the violence”, blaming the government and allied forces backed by Iran for the escalation of attacks on civilians in the northwest.

But there came a time when the supporters of the government were busy with other disputes.

The Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, which was instrumental in helping to push back the rebels in the early years of the war, has recently suffered from Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

Israeli strikes have also eliminated Iranian military commanders in Syria and cut supply lines to pro-government forces there.

Russia is also distracted by the war in Ukraine.

Mr Pedersen estimated that the rebels now have control over an area of ​​approximately 7 million people, including 2 million in the city of Aleppo.