Signs of welcome for Syrian rebels in Hama, a city that paid dearly for its opposition to Assad

Battles for control of northern entrance to Hama will determine whether it falls to insurgents

Anti-government fighters in buoyant mood in Suran, between Aleppo and Hama. AFP

Veterinary supplies shop owner Shadi Samih reopened his business in the centre of Hama on Wednesday, after fighting between the military and rebels at the gates of the Syrian mercantile city had forced him to close it.

He said the situation had stabilised since mortar bombs killed at least three civilians in the area on Tuesday during fighting concentrated on the city’s northern outskirts, where the military and allied militias are now trying to hold on to a hill called Zein Abeidin.

Capturing the Sunni city, inhabitants of which have previously mounted two failed rebellions against Syria's system of rule, would be a major gain for the Turkish-linked rebels.

Their blitzkrieg in recent days, which was launched from bases in a Turkish zone of influence in northern Syria, has already resulted in the fall of Aleppo, Syria’s business capital.

A similar rebel advance in 2015 prompted a Russian intervention on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. Syria's civil war started in late 2011 after the government used deadly force to suppress a non-violent, pro-democracy uprising.

“Things have been quiet in the centre. If the city is going to fall, it will be through the north,” said Mr Samih.

If Hama falls, his main worry is it being subjected to indiscriminate air strikes by Russian planes, or worse, chemical weapons, which have been dropped many times on rebel areas throughout the civil war. "You never know with this regime," he said.

The rebel advance has altered lines of control in Syria agreed on by international powers over the past decade. It has strengthened the position of Ankara compared with Russia, Iran and the US, each of which also have their own zones of control, manned by proxy militias.

The offensive is being led by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, an Al Qaeda offshoot with channels to Ankara. But Turkish proxies amalgamated under a formation called the National Syrian Army are also taking part.

Unlike Aleppo, which fell swiftly, the attack on Hama has slowed down in the past 24 hours, although the insurgents say they are advancing into countryside surrounding the city.

The city is strategic because it is situated on the main M5 motorway linking Aleppo and Damascus. It also forms a barrier between eastern desert and fertile territory partly inhabited by Syria's Alawite minority, people who make up the core support for the President and have dominated Syrian politics since the 1960s.

State media has been broadcasting footage purportedly showing villagers in rural Hama marching in support of Mr Assad but in the city itself there has been no demonstration of loyalty.

Abu Farah, owner of a cable factory, said the relatively orderly rebel capture of Aleppo had calmed fears that chaos could beset Hama. "I think they [the rebels] want to send a message that business will go on," he said.

Another businessman and owner of a furniture factory, who gave his name only as Ayman, said if the city did fall, militias from nearby Alawite villages to whom he pays protection money would no longer be able to operate in Hama. "I am hoping that these rackets will stop," he said.

But not all Hama residents are against the Assad regime. A major reason the rebel offensive has stalled outside the city is resistance in the northern suburb of Qomhane, residents told The National. The poor Sunni area has historically been co-opted by the Syrian authorities with offers of jobs in the bureaucracy and security forces.

Members of a militia called Brigade 25, which has been helping to ward off the rebels, are drawn mainly from Qomhane.

Hama governorate, like the rest of Syria, is mostly Sunni. Armed resistance in the area against Syria's Alawite rulers has traditionally been small, led by the Fighting Vanguard, the armed division of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 1982, the Defence Companies, an elite unit of the Syrian military headed by Rifaat Al Assad, the current President's uncle, overran Hama after an uprising in several parts of Syria led by the Muslim Brotherhood. Between 30,000 and 45,000 civilians were killed in the attack, according to Syrian lawyers who traced civil records.

It coincided with a regime crackdown on secular and religious dissidents, and mounting repression of professional unions, as well as writers and academics.

When the nationwide Syrian revolt broke out in March 2011, Hama residents were quick to join the mass protest movement. Hundreds of people in the city and its suburbs were killed in the ensuing crackdown ordered by Mr Assad, which culminated in Syrian tanks rolling into the city in July of that year.