1964 Hama riot

1964 Hama riot
Part of the Cold War
Date April 1964 Location Hama, Syria Result Insurrection suppressed
Belligerents
Syrian Government Ba'ath Party	Muslim Brotherhood
Commanders and leaders
Michel Aflaq Secretary General of Ba'ath Party National Command Amin al-Hafiz President of Syria Prime Minister of Syria	Issam al-Attar Supreme Guide of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
Casualties and losses
	70-100 dead

1964 Hama riot was the first significant clash between the newly installed Ba'ath party leadership of Syria and the Islamic Brotherhood. It occurred in April 1964, shortly after the 1963 Ba'athist coup d'état. The insurrection was suppressed with heavy military force, resulting in 70-100 mortal casualties and partial destruction of the old Hama city neighbourhoods. The city of Hama continued to be a center of Islamists and a focal point of the 1976-1982 Islamic uprising in Syria.

Background

Main article: History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria

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The first clash between the Ba'ath party and the Islamic Brotherhood occurred shortly after the 1963 coup, in which the Ba'ath party gained power in Syria. From the start, Islamic political groups, of which the Brotherhood was the most prominent, represented the strongest opposition to the new regime. The outlawing of Brotherhood in 1964 resulted in its radicalization. In 1964 and 1965, strikes and mass demonstrations spread throughout Syria's major cities, especially in Hama, and were crushed by the military. 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."

April 1964 in Hama

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 uprising and some 70-100 members of the Muslim Brotherhood died, with many others wounded or captured, and still more disappearing underground. The Syrian government sent forces into the quarters of Hama's old city to put down the insurrection, resulting in wide scale destruction.

Aftermath

Main article: Hama massacre

Further information: Islamic uprising in Syria and 2011 Syrian uprising

In early 1980s, the city of Hama became the epicenter of the Islamic uprising. Hama has suffered a major massacre in April 1981, with hundreds of killed, however the situation went out of control in early February 1982, when Islamic groups took the city. In the military operation by the Syrian Army the city was almost destroyed and tens of thousands of Hama's citizens were killed.

Some three decades later, in the 2011 Syrian uprising, Muslim Sunni groups, related to the Muslim Brotherhood, were also blamed for flaring the uprising and taking an active part in the uprising. The city of Hama suffered another massacre in July–August 2011, following the events of the Hama blockade.

See also

• Human rights in Syria
• 2011 Syrian uprising
• List of modern conflicts in the Middle East