Rebels take control of the strategic Syrian city of Hama
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2024
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The loss of Hama is a major blow to President Assad's forces as rebels continue to advance across the country. Video footage showed insurgents parading through the streets and firing guns in celebration. We hear the latest from our correspondent in the region and ask Middle East expert Julien Barnes-Darcy how worried President Assad should be in the capital, Damascus.
Also in the programme: President Macron addresses the people of France amid political turmoil. And we hear from Mick Mulvaney, former acting chief of staff in President Trump's White House.
(Photo: A rebel fighter stands atop a military vehicle in northwestern Idlib province, Syria, 1 December, 2024. Credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service coming to live from our studios in London with me, Sean Lay. |
| 0:11.2 | Just to give you a flavour of what's to come in this hour, Donald Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney tells me why managing with chaos can be a good thing. |
| 0:22.6 | We'll have the latest from New York on The Manhunt for the killer of the health insurance executive Brian Thompson and Asaki, |
| 0:27.9 | Japanese rice wine, receives international protection. What makes it so special? It's a type of fungus, |
| 0:34.4 | a type of mould. The main thing is it contributes the glucose that's essential for creating alcohol for |
| 0:39.0 | the east to ferment. |
| 0:40.4 | But it does also create lots of a wonderful flavour profile like umami, you know, |
| 0:44.0 | very savoury, delicious flavour profiles and kind of chestnutty, nutty characteristic as well. |
| 0:49.6 | But we begin this hour with news from Syria. |
| 0:52.5 | It took opponents of President Bashar al-Assad just two days to take control of Hamar, a city in the centre of Syria, 200 kilometres from the capital Damascus. |
| 1:02.6 | For sure, the rebel Islamists formerly active in al-Qaeda, were helped by the strategic withdrawal of President Assad's troops. |
| 1:09.7 | But this is still the most dramatic advance by any group since the fighting began in Syria. |
| 1:15.1 | More than half a million people in the country have been killed since civil war erupted there in 2011 |
| 1:20.3 | after President al-Assad's government cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests. |
| 1:27.1 | This latest offensive is led by a group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as HTS. |
| 1:32.9 | Although its roots are jihadist, recently it's tried to rebrand as a nationalist force |
| 1:37.5 | shorn of its ideological identity. |
| 1:40.5 | The leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani, released this message as his forces advanced. |
| 1:47.3 | I bring you good news. |
| 1:49.1 | Your brothers have begun entering the city of Hama to cleanse that wound, which has persisted in Syria for 40 years. |
| 1:56.1 | I pray to Allah that this be an act of justice, bringing no harm, but instead full of mercy. |
| 2:02.4 | Well, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antenio Guterres, said Thursday, |
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