Syrians, Russians Retreat From Hama, In Strategic Defeat For Kremlin, Iran

A major problem for the retreating Syrians and Russians is the amount of abandoned weaponry and armor that the rebels can now turn on their fleeing enemies, which is contributing to their momentum. 

Only one government held city now stands between the rebels and Syria's capital, Damascus. This defeat is a major embarrassment for Russia and Iran. JL

Jared Malsin reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The Syrian government said it was pulling military forces from the city of Hama, a major strategic and symbolic prize. Capturing Hama would leave only one major city, Homs, in government hands on the road from rebel-held northern Syria to Damascus. The opposition’s assault is also a strategic setback for Moscow and Tehran. It comes as both countries are more vulnerable because of their entanglements in other wars, with Russia pouring resources into the conflict in Ukraine and Iran’s militia allies in the Middle East under pressure from an Israeli military offensive.

The Syrian government said it was pulling military forces from the city of Hama, a major strategic and symbolic prize, following fierce fighting with rebels who launched a dramatic assault last week and seized large swaths of territory.

The rebels said earlier on Thursday that they had entered the city. Forces and warplanes loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian air power, were fighting with the opposition in the countryside around Hama, the government’s state-controlled news agency SANA said Thursday morning.

“To safeguard the lives of civilians in Hama and avoid urban battles, stationed military units have repositioned outside the city,” the Syrian Defense Ministry said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the move would amount to a partial or complete withdrawal of troops from the city.

The battle for Hama shows how the rebels are expanding their attack on government forces, days after they achieved one of their most important gains in more than 13 years of the rebellion in Syria—by capturing the city of Aleppo, which before the war was Syria’s largest city.

While Assad—backed by Russia and Iran—has clawed back control over much of the country since the 2011 uprising, Syria is still in a state of civil war with several rebel groups of varying ideological, sectarian and ethnic alignments in control of some areas, particularly in the country’s war-torn north.

A Syrian Kurdish woman on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria, after fleeing from Aleppo. Photo: Delil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Capturing Hama would leave only one major city, Homs, in government hands on the road from rebel-held northern Syria to Damascus. Both cities are crucial to Assad’s strategy, in which his forces have fought brutally and determinedly to keep control over the country’s main population centers.

Hama also has emotional significance for opponents of the Assad regime, in part because of an Islamist-led uprising that took place there in 1982 that was crushed by the government in a deadly crackdown.

The opposition’s assault is also a strategic setback for Moscow and Tehran. It comes as both countries are more vulnerable because of their entanglements in other wars, with Russia pouring resources into the conflict in Ukraine and Iran’s militia allies in the Middle East under pressure from an Israeli military offensive.

Russia and Iran have backed Assad since the rebel assault began last week, with Russian warplanes launching strikes in opposition-held territory and Iran’s foreign minister flying to Damascus, where he pledged support in the fight against the rebels.

The fighting in Hama illustrates how the rebels are building on momentum after capturing Aleppo late last week, with government forces crumbling within days in the face of a rebel offensive there.

The rebel military command said in a social-media post on Thursday morning that opposition forces had entered the city of Hama, engaging in fierce fighting with government forces.

Military analysts said government forces are facing a new challenge in dealing with military hardware captured by the rebels from the government. Opposition forces said they had overrun a series of government military bases in recent days.

Opposition fighters passed abandoned Syrian army vehicles north of Hama on Tuesday. Photo: Omar haj Kadour/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

“The regime seems incapable of dealing with the tanks now,” said Gregory Waters, an analyst on Syrian military dynamics with Syrian Archive, a research organization.

In the days since capturing Aleppo, the Sunni Islamist-led rebels have appealed to government soldiers to defect and have acted to reassure members of other religious sects. The largest rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is labeled a terrorist group by the U.S., although it claims to have given up its extremist roots.

How the rebels govern Aleppo and other cities is another test for the opposition. HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani on Wednesday told International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organization based in Brussels, that the militant group is considering dissolving itself “in order to enable full consolidation of civilian and military structures in new institutions reflecting the breadth of Syrian society.”

The challenge for Assad now is to reorganize and attempt to defend the territory he still holds after a week in which his security forces collapsed in stunning fashion. Next on the road after Hama is Homs, a critical juncture at which the rebels could attempt to sever the road from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast and its vital air and navy bases, including those operated by Russia.

Russia and the Syrian regime have intensified airstrikes in rebel-held territory since the offensive began. On Wednesday night a government airstrike killed a civilian and wounded a woman and two children in the opposition-held city of Idlib, according to the White Helmets, an independent rescue organization.