BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al Assad performed prayers for Eid al Fitr in Hama on Sunday, the furthest he has travelled inside Syria in years, showing his growing confidence.
State television broadcast footage of Assad standing to pray in a large mosque in Hama behind its imam, with other clerics standing alongside and a large crowd of worshippers.
State news agency Sana quoted the preacher as saying that Assad’s presence in the city for Eid showed that victory and the return of security were only “a few steps” away.
Syria’s civil war has turned to Assad’s favour since 2015, when Russia sent its jets to help his army and allied militias backed turn back rebels and win new ground.
Since the war began in 2011, it has killed hundreds of thousands, driven millions more from their homes, sparked a global refugee crisis and drawn in regional and world powers.
The conflict is far from over. Rebels hold swathes of the country, including around Idlib province near Hama, and launched a new attack in Quneitra in the southwest on Saturday.
Rebels also hold the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus, parts of the desert in the southeast and a large pocket south of Hama around the city of Rastan. As recently as March, rebels advanced from Idlib province to within a few kilometres of Hama, before the army and its allies pushed them back in weeks of fierce fighting.
However, the army drove insurgents from their biggest urban stronghold in Aleppo.
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