A coalition of Syrian rebels spearheaded by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA), supported by Turkey, launched a major offensive against the Syrian army over the past week. They took control of the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s largest, and advanced their offensive into Hama province.
The rebels “were able to take control of the cities and towns of Taybat al-Imam, Halfaya, Suran, and Maardis in the northern Hama countryside during the past hours after violent clashes with regime forces,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
The Observatory also said that regime forces successfully thwarted HTS-led attempts to overrun strategic points in Hama, including the town of Qalaat Al-Madiq.
At least 514 fighters and civilians have lost their lives since the clashes erupted, according to the Observatory, and eight civilians were killed on Tuesday in artillery shelling on several neighborhoods in Hama.
The United Nations said that at least 50,000 people have been displaced since the fighting erupted in late November.
Syrians rose against the Assad regime in 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, left millions more in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and left much of the country’s infrastructure in ruins.
More than 13 million Syrians, half the country’s pre-war population, have been displaced since the start of the civil war, more than 6 million of whom are refugees who have fled the war-torn country, according to United Nations figures.
