December 5, 2024 · Hama Governorate Theater
December 5, 2024
Hama fell on December 5, 2024, after the Syrian Arab Army announced it was 'redeploying' from the city to its outskirts — a euphemism for flight. The symbolism was overwhelming: Hama was where Hafez al-Assad had crushed a Muslim Brotherhood uprising in 1982 by shelling the old city flat and killing somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 people, the massacre that defined the family's rule by terror for two generations. Rebels opened the city's prisons and filmed themselves walking through the same neighborhoods. The government's abandonment of Hama without a serious fight told every remaining garrison in Syria what was coming.
Commanders