Syrian rebels ousted pro-government forces from Hama on Thursday, bringing the insurgents a major new victory after a lightning advance across northern Syria and dealing a new blow to President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
The Syrian army announced that the rebels had entered Hama after intense clashes and said it was redeploying outside the city “to preserve civilians lives and prevent urban combat.”
Rebels said they had taken districts in the city’s northeast and had seized the central prison, freeing detainees.
Rebels said they were preparing to keep marching south towards Homs, Syria’s great crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and coast.
“Your time has come,” said a rebel operations room in an online post, calling on city residents to rise up in revolution.
Al Jazeera television broadcast what it said were images of rebels inside the city, some of them meeting …