1982 Hama massacre The Hama massacre ( ) occurred in February 1982 , when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies , under the orders of the country ' s then - president , Hafez al - Assad , besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al - Assad ' s government . The massacre , carried out by the Syrian Army supposedly under commanding General Rifaat al - Assad , President Assad ' s younger brother , effectively ended the campaign begun in 1976 by Sunni Islamic groups , including the Muslim Brotherhood , against the government . Initial diplomatic reports from Western countries stated that 1 , 000 were killed . Subsequent estimates vary , with the lower estimates claiming that at least 10 , 000 Syrian citizens were killed , while others put the number at 20 , 000 ( Robert Fisk ) , or 40 , 000 ( Syrian Human Rights Committee ) . About 1 , 000 Syrian soldiers were killed during the operation and large parts of the old city were destroyed . Alongside such events as Black September in Jordan , the attack has been described as one of " the single deadliest acts by any Arab government against its own people in the modern Middle East " . The vast majority of the victims were civilians . According to Syrian media , anti - government rebels initiated the fighting , who " pounced on our comrades while sleeping in their homes and killed whomever they could kill of women and children , mutilating the bodies of the martyrs in the streets , driven , like mad dogs , by their black hatred . " Security forces then " rose to confront these crimes " and " taught the murderers a lesson that has snuffed out their breath " . Background . The Ba ' ath Party of Syria , which advocated the ideologies of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism had clashed with the Muslim Brotherhood , a group with a conservative ideology , since 1940 . The two groups were opposed in important ways . The Ba ' ath party was secular , nationalist and led by the minority Alawite s , which conservative Sunni Muslims considered heretic s . The Muslim Brotherhood , like other Islamist groups , saw nationalism as un - Islamic and religion as inseparable from politics and government . Most Ba ' ath party members were from humble , obscure backgrounds and favored radical economic policies , while Sunni Muslims had dominated the souq s and landed power of Syria , and tended to view government intervention in the economy as threatening . Not all Sunni notables believed in fundamentalism , and those who did not often saw the Brotherhood as a useful tool against the Ba ' ath . The town of Hama in particular was a " stronghold of landed conservatism and of the Muslim Brothers , " and " had long been a redoubtable opponent of the Ba ' athist state . " The first full - scale clash between the two occurred shortly after the 1963 coup , in which the Ba ' ath party first gained power in Syria . In April 1964 riots broke out in Hama , where Muslim insurgents put up " roadblocks , stockpiled food and weapons , ransacked wine shops . " After an Ismaili Ba ' ath militia man was killed , riots intensified and rebels attacked " every vestige " of the Ba ' ath party in Hama . Tanks were brought in to crush the rebellion and 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood died , with many others wounded or captured , and still more disappearing underground . After the clashes in Hama , the situation periodically erupted into clashes between the government and various Islamic sections . However a more serious challenge occurred after the Syrian invasion of Lebanon in 1976 . From 1976 to 1982 , Sunni Islamists fought the Ba ' ath Party - controlled government of Syria in what has been called a " long campaign of terror " . In 1979 the Brotherhood undertook guerrilla activities in multiple cities within the country targeting military officers and government officials . The resulting government repression included abusive tactics , torture , mass arrests , and a number of massacres . In July 1980 , the ratification of Law No . 49 made membership in the Muslim Brotherhood a capital offense . Throughout the first years of the 1980s the Muslim Brotherhood and various other Islamist factions staged hit - and - run and bomb attacks against the government and its officials , including a nearly successful attempt to assassinate president Hafez al - Assad on 26 June 1980 , during an official state reception for the president of Mali . When a machine - gun salvo missed him , al - Assad allegedly ran to kick a hand grenade aside , and his bodyguard ( who survived and was later promoted to a much higher position ) smothered the explosion of another one . Surviving with only light injuries , al - Assad ' s revenge was swift and merciless : only hours later a large number of imprisoned Islamists ( reports more than 1200 ) were executed in their cells in Tadmor Prison ( near Palmyra ) , by units loyal to the president ' s brother Rifaat al - Assad . Attack by insurgents in Hama . The events of the Hama massacre began at 2 am on 3 February 1982 . An army unit searching the old city " stumbled on the hideout of the local guerilla commander , ` Umar Jawwad , " ( aka Abu Bakr ) and were ambushed . Other insurgent cells were alerted by radio and " roof - top snipers killed perhaps a score " of Syrian soldiers . Reinforcements were rushed to besiege Abu Bakr who then " gave the order for a general uprising " in Hama . Mosque loudspeakers used for the call to prayer called for jihad against the Ba ' ath , and hundreds of Islamic insurgents rose to attack the homes of government officials and Baath Party leaders , overrun police posts and ransack armories . By daybreak of the morning of 3 February some 70 leading Ba ' athists had been killed and the Islamist insurgents and other opposition activists proclaimed Hama a " liberated city " , urging Syrians to rise up against the " infidel " . Attack by government forces . According to author Patrick Seale , " every party worker , every paratrooper sent to Hama knew that this time Islamic militancy had to be torn out of the city , whatever the cost . . . " The military was mobilized , and president Hafez al - Assad sent Rifaat ' s special forces ( the Defense companies ) , elite army units and Mukhabarat agents to the city . Before the attack , the Syrian government called for the city ' s surrender and warned that anyone remaining in the city would be considered a rebel . Besieged by 12 , 000 troops , the fighting in Hama lasted for three weeks – the first week " in regaining control of the town , " and the last two " in hunting down the insurgents . " Robert Fisk , in his book " Pity the Nation " , described how civilians were fleeing Hama while tanks and troops were moving towards the city ' s outskirts to start the siege . He cites reports of high numbers of deaths and shortages of food and water from fleeing civilians and from soldiers . According to Amnesty International , the Syrian military bombed the old city center from the air to facilitate the entry of infantry and tanks through the narrow streets ; buildings were demolished by tanks during the first four days of fighting . Large parts of the old city were destroyed . There are also unsubstantiated reports of use of hydrogen cyanide by the government forces . After encountering fierce resistance , Rifaat ' s forces ringed the city with artillery and shelled it for three weeks . After the initial attacks , military and internal security personnel were dispatched to comb through the rubble for surviving members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their sympathizers . Torture and mass executions of suspected rebel sympathizers ensued , killing many thousands over several weeks . Rifaat , suspecting that rebels were still hiding in tunnels under the old city , had diesel fuel pumped into them and set ablaze and stationed T - 72 tanks at the tunnel entrances to shell people trying to escape from the tunnels . Fatality estimates . Initial diplomatic reports from western governments in 1982 had believed that 1000 were killed in the fighting . Subsequent estimates of casualties vary from 7 , 000 to 40 , 000 people killed , including about 1 , 000 soldiers . Robert Fisk , who was in Hama shortly after the massacre , originally estimated fatalities at 10 , 000 , but has since doubled the estimate to 20 , 000 . The president ' s brother Rifaat reportedly boasted of killing 38 , 000 people . Amnesty International initially estimated the death toll was between 10 , 000 and 25 , 000 , the vast majority civilians . Reports by the Syrian Human Rights Committee estimate " over 25 , 000 " or between 30 , 000 and 40 , 000 people were killed . The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood also suggests a figure of approximately 40 , 000 victims . Twenty years later , Syrian journalist Subhi Hadidi , wrote that " under the command of General Ali Haydar , besieged the city for 27 days , bombarding it with heavy artillery and tank [ fire ] , before invading it and killing 30 , 000 or 40 , 000 of the city ' s citizens – in addition to the 15 , 000 missing who have not been found to this day , and the 100 , 000 expelled . " After the massacre . After the Hama uprising , the Islamist insurrection was broken , and the Brotherhood has since operated in exile while other factions surrendered or slipped into hiding . Government attitudes in Syria hardened considerably during the uprising , and Assad would rely more on repressive than on political tactics for the remainder of his rule , although an economic liberalization began in the 1990s . After the massacre , the already evident disarray in the insurgents ' ranks increased , and the rebel factions experienced acrimonious internal splits . Particularly damaging to their cause was the deterrent effect of the massacre , as well as the realization that no Sunni uprisings had occurred in the rest of the country in support of the Hama rebels . Most members of the rebel groups fled the country or remained in exile , mainly in Jordan and Iraq , while others would make their way to the United States , the United Kingdom and Germany . The Muslim Brotherhood — the largest opposition group — split into two factions , after giving up on armed struggle . One , more moderate and recognized by the international Muslim Brotherhood , eventually headquartered itself in the UK where it remains , while another for several years retained a military structure in Iraq , with backing from the government , before rejoining the London - based mainstream . The Hama massacre is often raised in indictment of the Assad government ' s poor human rights record . Within Syria , mention of the massacre has been strictly suppressed , although the general contours of the events — and various partisan versions , on all sides — are well known throughout the country . When the massacre is publicly referenced , it is only as the " events " or " incident " at Hama .