Syria opens Homs-Hama highway after near 7-year closure due to war
The Syrian government re-opened the highway between the cities of Homs and Hama on Wednesday a month after its forces retook a rebel-held pocket that had straddled the road that was closed for almost seven years.
Motorists waved Syrian flags as they drove down the highway whose re-opening marked a victory for President Bashar al-Assad, who in recent months has taken control of all rebel-held pockets around the capital Damascus as well as the enclave along the highway which had been under siege for years.
From holding less than a fifth of Syria in 2015, Assad, with Russian and Iranian help, has recovered control of the largest chunk of the country.
