As Syrian rebel forces continue their advancement into areas previously controlled by the Assad regime, prisoners long-held in the regime’s prisons saw freedom for the first time in decades.
This includes Lebanese prisoners, such as Ali Hassan Ali, who was freed after 40 years of captivity. Ali was arrested in 1985, when Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez al-Assad, had launched a large campaign of arrests of Lebanese and Syrian individuals.
Ali’s family had been searching for answers for decades, with both Lebanese and Syrian authorities claiming that no Lebanese detainees remained in Assad’s prisons.
In 1982, the Syrian regime under the presidency of Hafez al-Assad committed what is now known as the 1982 Hama massacre, where it besieged the town of Hama for 27 days, killing thousands of individuals in the process. Assad then ordered a complete media blackout of the event, leaving outsiders with very little knowledge of what occurred to this day.
The massacre was a central memory for many who rose up against the regime in 2011 and launched what became known as the Syrian Revolution.
Rapid and Relentless Advancement
Syrian opposition forces, including a range of rebel factions such as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and led by the newly formed control room named the Military Operations Management, have advanced at lightning speed over the past 10 days.
The Military Operations Management, otherwise known as the Military Operations Command, is the newest iteration of the Fateh al-Mubin operations command centre under which the groups were operating in the past years.
They managed to gain control over major cities such as Aleppo and now Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city, in a matter of days.
The groups’ advancement was met with intensive strikes by Syrian regime and Russian forces, including strikes targeting civilian infrastructure such as hospitals.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the fighting has resulted in the killing of at least 149 civilians, including 35 children and 16 women, in northern Syria between November 27 and December 3, 2024.
At the moment this piece is published, Syrian rebel factions are advancing towards Homs, with reports stating that they are mere kilometers from the outskirts.
The Transitional Phase
Commander-in-chief of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani) has announced plans to install a transitional body to govern cities that oppositional forces have gained control over, such as Aleppo.
Al-Shar’a announced that the HTS would dissolve itself to facilitate the unification of civil and military structures under a broader framework of establishing functional official institutions, whereby bureaucrats would resume their roles.
It remains unclear where the current round of fighting is heading, but the quick advances that opposition groups were able to make are likely due to the weakening of the regime’s allies, especially Iran’s arms in the region such as Hezbollah, and the investment of Russia in its war with Ukraine.
The freeing of long-held prisoners in Assad’s dungeons was a sight of pleasure and pain for many, while others now await news about their long-disappeared relatives that were arrested by the regime’s security apparatus.