Factbox: Syria's city of Hama, site of new assault

(Reuters) - Syrian tanks shelled the central city of Hama Monday, killing four civilians, residents said, a day after rights groups said security forces killed 80 there in one of the bloodiest days of the five-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

Here are some details about the city which was the site of a massacre in 1982:

* 1982:

-- In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Syria's Muslim Brotherhood sought to destabilize and unseat President Hafez al-Assad and his government through political assassinations and urban guerilla warfare. In February 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood ambushed government forces searching for dissidents in Hama.

-- Syrian government forces attacked the city, razing the old quarters of Hama to crush the armed uprising by Brotherhood fighters who had taken refuge there.

-- Estimates of the death toll in the three weeks of operations in Hama vary from 10,000 to more than 30,000 out of a population of 350,000. Syria then imprisoned much of the membership of the local Islamist group.

-- Syrian human rights groups said that women, children and the elderly were among those killed in the crackdown and thousands were forced to flee the city.

* 2011:

-- In June, activists said Syrian forces killed at least 60 protesters in the city. Residents said security forces and snipers had fired on crowds of demonstrators.

-- Assad sacked the governor of Hama province on July 2, a day after tens of thousands of protesters massed in the provincial capital to demand the Syrian leader step down.

-- The demonstration in Hama was part of nationwide protests which activists said were some of the biggest since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in mid-March.

-- In a symbolic show of solidarity, U.S. ambassador Robert Ford and French ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Hama on July 8 to put pressure on Assad not to crush the protest. Syria condemned the action and summoned them to Damascus on July 10.

-- Ford had only arrived in Damascus in January. After he posted a letter on the embassy's Facebook page, a mob stormed the embassy compound July 11, tearing down plaques.

-- On July 31, a tank-backed assault killed at least 80 people in Hama, rights groups said. The state news agency said the military was purging armed groups that were terrorizing citizens. Monday, tanks shelled a northeastern district of Hama, killing four more civilians, two residents said.

* ABOUT HAMA:

-- Hama has been settled as far back as the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Famous for its citadel and its ancient Norias (waterwheels), the younger Assad and his government has sought to promote the city as a tourist destination.

-- Hama, Syria's fourth biggest city, has a mostly Sunni Muslim population of 700,000. It lies about 210 km (131 miles) north of Damascus.

Sources: Reuters/www.globalsecurity.org/homsonline (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)