A Syrian rebel who took part in the capture of the city of Hama has told Sky News they will continue to push on.

In the latest blow to President Bashar al Assad, rebels in the Middle Eastern country took control of the central city on Thursday.

Speaking to Sky News, one rebel said: “Just as we liberated Aleppo and now Hama, we will proceed to Homs, and Damascus, and Deir el Zor.”

He also claimed to have received support from the people in Hama.

Image:
A Syrian rebel fighter in Hama spoke to Sky News after taking the city

Abu Omar, a resident in the city of Hama
Image:
Abu Omar, a resident in the city of Hama

Abu Omar, a resident in the city, said they had been waiting “45 years… for this moment”.

When asked if he was afraid of the rebel attack, he said: “On the contrary, we’ve been waiting for this moment. Our children, our family, they’ve all come back to us.

“Everyone was a million times more scared before, praise God, we’ve been liberated. No more oppression and tyranny.”

Mr Omar added: “What’s happened to us here, has happened in Idlib and Aleppo… and the regime has completely failed.”

Rebels seize Hama

The Syrian army said it had withdrawn and taken up positions outside the city to protect civilians, hours after opposition fighters said they were marching towards its centre.

The insurgents said they had entered Syria’s fourth-largest city on Thursday after days of intense fighting with government forces on its outskirts.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Air strikes hit Hama as rebels advance

The fall of Hama follows a lightning offensive by the jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army.

The surprise assault saw militants capture much of Syria’s largest city Aleppo last week and reignited the country’s civil war, where the frontlines have largely been frozen in place over the last few years.

Read more:
Who are the Syrian rebels?
Analysis: The immense significance of rebel offensive

The battle for Hama saw fierce battles inside the city, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

“If Hama falls, it means that the beginning of the regime’s fall has started,” the monitor’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said before the city was captured.

The rebels have another key city in their sights

Hama is infamous in modern Syrian history.

In February 1982, government forces led by Rifaat al-Assad, the younger brother of then-President Hafez al-Assad, and uncle of the current President Bashar al-Assad, surrounded the city to quash an anti-Baathist uprising.

Thousands were massacred as the rebellion was crushed. It is still considered one of the largest assaults by an Arab leader on his own people in recent times and is taboo in official Syrian circles to this day.

The capture of Hama by rebels is therefore both a deeply symbolic and hugely strategic blow to the regime.

After taking the country’s second biggest city Aleppo over the weekend, they have made fast progress around 100 miles south while seemingly encountering little resistance.

Syrian and Russian attempts to repel them, mainly using airstrikes, have failed.

Rebel forces are now barely 50 miles from Homs, another key city that sits on a major junction of highways in the country. That will be next in their sights.

The more territory they take, the more stretched their forces will become attempting to hold ground.

President Assad will need to fight back – Damascus is still a comfortable distance away, but the Syrian leader is weakened and won’t rest easy after this latest humiliation.

Map of Syrian

Hama is one of the few cities that remained under Mr Assad’s control during Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 following a popular uprising.

The central city of Homs, Syria’s third-largest, is around 40km (25 miles) away and is likely to be the rebels’ next target.

It sits on a major crossroads in Syria, linking the capital Damascus to the north and the coast to the west.

Smoke billows near residential buildings in a picture taken from a drone in Aleppo, Syria. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Smoke billows near residential buildings in Aleppo. Pic: Reuters

Jihad Yazigi, editor of the Syria Report newsletter, said: “Assad now cannot afford to lose anything else.

“The big battle is the one coming against Homs. If Homs falls, we are talking of a potential change of regime.”

Mr Assad has been able to stay in power largely thanks to the help of his allies, Russia and Iran, but both countries – as well as the Iran-backed Hezbollah group – have been distracted by their own wars.

Russia has been preoccupied with its invasion of Ukraine since 2022 and Hezbollah in Lebanon has suffered heavy losses in its war with Israel.