Families rejoice as they reunite after eight years

HTS stormed city from several sides, engaged in street battles with forces

- 

ISLAMIST-led rebels captured the central Syrian city of Hama on Thursday, days after seizing the country's commercial hub Aleppo in a lightning offensive against President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Following overnight clashes, the rebels stormed Hama "from several sides" and engaged in street battles with Assad's forces, Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.

The rebels said they seized Hama's prison and released its inmates. By the afternoon, Syria's army admitted losing control of the city, strategically located between Aleppo and Assad's seat of power in the capital Damascus.

"Over the past few hours, with the intensification of confrontations between our soldiers and terrorist groups... these groups were able to breach a number of axes in the city and entered it," the army said in a statement, adding units had regrouped outside Hama.

Aron Lund, a fellow of the Century International think tank, called the loss of Hama "a massive, massive blow to the Syrian government" because the army should have had an advantage there to reverse rebel gains "and they couldn't do it."