STORY:
:: The Military Media for the Syrian Revolution
Syrian rebels released this footage on Thursday (December 5) purporting to show a captured government military site near the city of Hama.
Reuters was able to verify the location, but not the date.
Rebels said they'd ousted the Syrian military from Hama, their latest victory in a lightning advance across the country's north.
The Syrian army said it had redeployed outside the city in what it called an effort "to preserve civilians' lives and prevent urban combat."
It's a significant blow to President Bashar Assad.
The capture of Hama comes days after rebels took the main northern city of Aleppo and have since pushed south from their enclave in northwest Syria.
:: File
One of the key rebel commanders goes by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani.
This week Golani visited Aleppo's historic citadel in a moment of symbolic victory. Rebels were driven from the city after a brutal siege in 2016.
Golani had previously led the Syrian branch of the al-Qaida Islamist group, but now calls his militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS.
The group has been designated a terrorist outfit by Turkey, the United States, Russia and other countries.
:: File
Golani's rebranding appears aimed to de-emphasize the hard-line Sunni element of his past in the fight for a country made of up different religious and ethnic minorities.
Golani has pledged to protect Syria's religious minorities and has called on them to abandon Assad.
But many remain fearful of the insurgents.
Shafiqa Saeeda and her husband Mohamed Nassro are part of Syria's Yazidi minority, who fled Aleppo as the rebels approached.
They are living in tents outside the town of Tabqa, desperate for food.
Saeeda said she implored her husband to flee.
"They said that the Free Syrian Army would enter the area. We were afraid because there were women with us. We were afraid that they would kidnap them from us. My husband said we will stay in the area and not go out, so my eyes teared up and I cried. I told him 'how will you leave these women here?' But I convinced him."
:: The Military Media for the Syrian Revolution
Rebels in Hama said they were preparing to keep marching south towards Homs, Syria's great crossroads city that links the capital Damascus to the north and coast.
