The Assads of Syria — Part 2: war with the Brotherhood

Hama, Syria, 2020

Just over 200 miles north of Damascus on the banks of the Orontes River lies Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city with a pre-2011 population of 800,000. It’s an ancient city; its biblical name was Hamath and is thought to have been the capital of the Caananite kingdom, thus tracing its origins all the way back to antiquity. Over succeeding centuries the city came under Greek, Roman, and…