Agencies
The Syrian army has announced its withdrawal from the strategic city of Hama after fierce fighting with foreign-supported Islamist militants.
In a statement issued on Facebook, the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces said that over the past few days, the nation’s troops have “fought fierce battles” to repel and thwart the “violent and successive” attacks launched by the jihadists.
However, the intensification of the fighting and the rising death toll have prompted the army to redeploy and reposition its units, the statement read.
The decision was made in order “to preserve the lives of civilians” and not to involve them in battles, it stressed. Damascus also said that the militants suffered “heavy losses” in their ranks during the fight.
The army confirmed that it “will continue to carry out its national duty in reclaiming the areas entered by terrorist organizations.”
Hama is strategically located in central Syria, about 200km from the capital Damascus; it is also approximately 50km of the city of Homs.
The fighting around Hama has been particularly fierce, according to media reports, since the Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and its allies launched a large-scale surprise attack in the northwestern part of the country last week.
Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham, which translates as “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant” and is commonly known as HTS, is considered a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, Iran, the US, and other countries.
The Russian government said it is following the situation in Syria to determine the level of assistance Damascus needs to deal with a jihadist offensive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
“We are in constant dialogue with our Syrian friends in Damascus. Depending on the assessment of the situation, the amount of assistance can be decided that the Syrian authorities would need to deal with the militants and eliminate this threat,” Peskov told journalists during a regular briefing.
The Russian military previously reported delivering strikes on positions held by HTS and its allies, with hundreds of casualties reportedly inflicted.
Moscow said on Wednesday that Russia, Iran and Türkiye were in “close contact” over the escalation in Syria.
Moscow intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015, helping to inflict heavy defeats on numerous terrorist groups, most notably al-Nusra and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). Russia maintains a significant military presence in the country and has military bases in Hmeimim and Tartus.
The insurgents have pushed back government forces and captured significant chunks of territory in Aleppo and Idlib provinces. Aleppo, which is the second-largest city in the country, had been under Syrian government control since 2016.
Hama has been under the Syrian government’s control throughout the war on Syria that started in 2011. Its fall to Jihadists would sign a major setback to the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.
Human Rights Watch warned on Wednesday that the fierce fighting in Syria between the government forces and jihadists “raises concerns that civilians face a real risk of serious abuses.”