Hama Massacre
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The Hama Massacre beginning February 2, 1982 occurred when the government of Syria attacked the town of Hama and killed thousands of people. The number killed is usually placed at around 20,000 but no accurate figures exist and the number could be considerably smaller or larger than this.
The town of Hama, like many smaller towns in the Sunni parts of Syria was a centre of activity of the Muslim Brotherhood an Islamist group opposed to the rule of Hafez al-Assad's Baath Party. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s Assad's government had been violently suppressing the movement, and this effort culminated in the attack on Hama. The Muslim Brotherhood were inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution and had been supplied with arms by the Turkish Grey Wolves.
The assault began on February 2 with extensive shelling of the town of 350 000 inhabitants. Syrian special forces entered and began to slaughter its inhabitants, with many others fleeing. According to Amnesty International, the Syrian military pumped poison gas into buildings where insurgents were said to be hiding.
The attack was successful in its goals and the rebellious activities of the Muslim Brotherhood ceased after this point.
The attack was not widely publicized at the time as the Syrian government made a determined effort to keep information from getting out. However, within Syria, the massacre was publicised in order to act as a deterrent. At the time the United States viewed the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat and turned a blind eye to many of the Syrian's governments actions. Even today the public at large are not well informed, especially when compared with comparable or smaller events in Iraq, Lebanon, or in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.