The Hama Massacre: The Day Assad’s Forces Destroyed an Entire City

The Hama Massacre: The Day Assad’s Forces Destroyed an Entire City

The events of February 1982 in the city of Hama stand among the darkest and most violent chapters in modern Syrian history. For 27 days, forces of the former regime—under the command of President Hafez al-Assad and his brother Rifaat—waged a systematic military campaign that left the city devastated and its people shattered. Background: Years of Escalating Tension The Hama Massacre did not erupt in a vacuum. It was the culmination of a long and …

Never Forgotten: Assad Dynasty’s Failure to Exterminate and Erase Hama

Scenes like this unfolded across Hama in February 1982, during what has become one of the bloodiest massacres in modern Middle Eastern history.