People in Hama, which was taken over by opposition military groups fighting against the forces of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria, tore down the statue of Bashar al-Assad’s father and former President Hafez al-Assad in the city center.
On February 2, 1982, Hafez al-Assad launched a military operation against the Muslim Brotherhood in Hama. Warplanes destroyed most of the city in a few days, and the operation, which lasted about a month, turned into a large-scale massacre that killed thousands of civilians.