Sindy
Gabriele Svelto [moved]Lots of developments in #Syria. Rebel groups (HTS) reached the city of Hama and even entered it, regime forces appear to have left the city earlier today and then redeployed inside of it later. HTS and SDF seem to have reached an agreement to avoid clashes around Aleppo. SDF forces retreated from the city. Bashar al-Assad is in Moscow and clashes have been reported within Damascus itself. Finally uprisings against regime forces have been reported in several cities.
One aspect that surprised me is that HTS forces seems to be trying to assuage the civilian population and in particular religious minorities and regime defectors, promising that they will not be harmed. That's very uncharacteristic for a jihadist group, so we'll see if that holds true in the coming days. Still it could be part of their strategy: everybody hates the regime, if they can gain popular support and defections among the army then the regime will be done for.