Syrian rebels battled pro-government forces on Wednesday on the outskirts of Hama, a major city in western Syria that has become the next target of the surprise offensive launched by opposition fighters last week, according to both sides.
The rebels have rapidly expanded the territory under their control in northwestern Syria. Led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, they now control all of Idlib Province and most of Aleppo Province. They have also set their sights on Hama, a region where President Bashar al-Assad’s government has long maintained strength.
On Wednesday, the rebel command said its fighters had captured several towns and villages just outside the city of Hama, the regional capital, as well as a Syrian military base on its outskirts. That came hours after the rebels said their fighters had control of Al-Mujanzarat Military Academy, one of the government’s largest military bases, east of the city. Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.
The map of rebel- and government-held territory has been shifting quickly as each side advances and retreats in different places around Hama.
Syria’s state news agency reported on Tuesday that a “large” number of reinforcements had arrived in Hama to help repel the rebels. The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said in an interview with French television on Wednesday that government artillery and airstrikes had managed to push the rebels back from the city.
At the same time, Syrian warplanes were pounding rebel-held territory. A photojournalist, Anas Al-Kharbatli, was killed in an airstrike in the countryside north of Hama on Wednesday morning, journalists in the area said.
Russia, a key ally of Mr. al-Assad, has been assisting Syria’s military with airstrikes to try to halt the rebels’ advance. On Wednesday, the Syrian military said Russia had helped secure safe passage for government forces who were besieged at the Assad Military Engineering Academy in Aleppo.
It said in a statement that “joint Syrian-Russian military-political coordination” had helped lift the rebel siege, but did not specify whether Russia had intervened on the ground or mediated the troops’ exit.
There was no immediate comment from Russia’s Defense Ministry about the events at the academy, and it was unclear whether the academy was now fully under rebel control.
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