Syrian Army Withdraws From Key City of Hama as Terrorist Groups Advance

The Syrian defense ministry said the fighting had intensified in the past 24 hours and that the terrorist groups had managed to penetrate the city’s defenses.

A Syrian Kurdish woman, fleeing from north of Aleppo, stands leaning on a bullet-riddled wall upon arriving in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, on Dec. 4, 2024. Delil SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images

The Syrian army says it has withdrawn from the key Syrian city of Hama, leaving it in the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Sunni Islamist terrorist group that began as a branch of al-Qaeda.

After two days of intense clashes, forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appear to have lost control of Hama, a city in central Syria that has remained in the hands of the government throughout the Syrian civil war.