“ The goal today is to overthrow Bashar al-Assad “. Clear announcement from the leader of the rebel coalition who has been leading a dazzling offensive for more than a week. Departing from Idlib in the northwest of the country, the troops are now close to Homs, the last major city before Damascus, after taking the town of Hama on December 5. Among the images of this conquest, those of the release of hundreds of political prisoners.
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On social networks, images of the Syria follow one another, notably those of the intervention of the rebels at the Hama prison. When the rebel coalition took advantage on Telegram of the “ total liberation of Hama “, she also announced that she had been released from the central prison ” hundreds of prisoners “.
On the videos, we can notably see old bearded men and younger, emaciated ones or even endless hugs between a father and his crying son. With the release of political prisoners from the prison center of Hamasuddenly all the years of oppression of the regime are evident. Some of these men had been in this prison since the 1980s. A rebellion against Bashar al-Assad’s father was bloodily suppressed there, causing tens of thousands of deaths.
Prisoners of several generations
Other prisoners had, for their part, participated in the uprising, again historic, of 2011 against the Syrian regime. It is one of the regime’s main prisons. From these walls several attempts at mutinies took place to denounce the violence suffered by the detainees there, but also to call for a political solution to the conflict.
These images of emotion and joy contrast with the anxiety that many Syrians are experiencing today in the face of the lightning advance of this rebel coalition led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Their leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, says he wants to ensure and protect the rights of every Syrian and every community, explaining that he wants to open a dialogue between all factions in the country.
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