Syria’s army ceded control of the city of Hama to advancing rebel forces, increasing the threat to President Bashar al-Assad’s hold on power.Hama lies about halfway between Aleppo, which opposition fighters captured in a shock attack on government-held territory last week,

The Islamist rebels’ breakneck advance has redrawn the country’s front lines and revealed the fragility of the government’s security forces.

The takeover of Hama follows at the heels of the rebels’ capture last week of Aleppo, Syria’s industrial center, in a lightning offensive that upended a years-old stalemate between Assad’s government and the opposition vowing to dislodge him since 2011.