\n<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have poured into the streets of Syria\u2019s central city of Hama to mark one year since forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad were expelled days before the longtime ruler\u2019s ouster.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere in the city \u2013 long a stronghold of opposition to al-Assad \u2013 is one of \u201chope and belief\u201d in Syria\u2019s future, reported Al Jazeera\u2019s Assed Baig from Hama\u2019s al-Assi Square.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cAs far as I can see on balconies on roofs, people are out celebrating this day,\u201d said Baig. \u201cThey\u2019re waving flags, they\u2019re chanting slogans, they\u2019re singing, and there\u2019s hope for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n On December 5, 2024, rebels led by Syria\u2019s now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa took control of Hama, marking their second breakthrough in a lightning offensive towards the capital. Days later, they captured Damascus, ending al-Assad\u2019s 24-year reign and his family\u2019s dynasty, as he fled to Russia.<\/p>\n Al-Assad\u2019s fall carries particular weight in Hama, which in 1982 suffered a brutal crackdown under his father, former President Hafez al-Assad.<\/p>\n In quelling an uprising there, government forces besieged and bombed the city, while rounding up and shooting young men and boys. The Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that between 30,000 and 40,000 people, including entire families, were killed.<\/p>\n Baig said today\u2019s atmosphere in Hama is markedly different from when he last visited two decades ago.<\/p>\n \u201cBack then, people would whisper, there was a sense of fear that the wrong word, the wrong sentence, could cause you to end up in trouble, disappeared to the regime forces\u2019 prison or maybe even worse,\u201d he said. \u201cNow people are happy, celebrating, joyous.\u201d<\/p>\n Syria\u2019s new leader, al-Sharaa, who once led al-Qaeda\u2019s branch in Syria and then the splinter group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has made a stunning turnaround since taking the reins of the country, largely restoring Syria\u2019s international standing and securing critical sanctions relief.<\/p>\n Serving as president for a five-year transitional period, al-Sharaa has toured capitals from the Gulf to Europe to Washington, and this week hosted a delegation from the United Nations Security Council in Syria.<\/p>\n In September, he was the first Syrian leader to address the United Nations General Assembly in six decades.<\/p>\n But there are concerns about continuing sectarian bloodshed in Syria\u2019s Alawite and Druze minority heartland, which some government forces and their allies have been implicated in and faced trial for.<\/p>\n Clashes and reprisals targeting the Alawite community, from which al-Assad hails, killed more than 1,700 people in March, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.<\/p>\n Then, further clashes in south Syria\u2019s Druze-majority Suwayda province left hundreds more dead in July, including many Druze civilians, according to the monitor.<\/p>\n Israel intervened with air strikes in Syria\u2019s south and Damascus, framing the operations as protecting the Druze \u2013 a claim\u00a0rejected by many Druze leaders.\u00a0Israel continues to carry out deadly incursions and strikes in Syria to this day. Last week at least 13 people, including children, were killed as\u00a0Israel launched another incursion<\/a>\u00a0into Syrian territory in the Damascus countryside, in Beit Jinn.<\/p>\n Nanar Hawach, a senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said \u201cSyria has opened a new chapter that many once thought impossible\u201d by rebuilding diplomatic ties and drawing foreign investment. But \u201cinternational rehabilitation means little if all Syrians don\u2019t feel safe walking their own streets\u201d.<\/p>\n Gamal Mansour, a researcher at the University of Toronto, says that many Syrians, terrified of the potential chaos a power vacuum could unleash, still view al-Sharaa as \u201cthe only option that provides guarantees\u201d.<\/p>\n In al-Hama, Baig says there\u2019s hope \u201cthe government will be able to deliver \u2026 unity and freedom for all Syrians.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thousands of people have poured into the streets of Syria\u2019s central city of Hama to mark one year since forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad were expelled days before the longtime ruler\u2019s ouster. The atmosphere in the city \u2013 long a stronghold of opposition to al-Assad \u2013 is one of \u201chope and belief\u201d in Syria\u2019s future, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018People are joyous\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018New chapter\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"