Syrian insurgents say they have entered the city of Hama after fierce fighting

Thousands of Kurdish families displaced from Aleppo and Tel Rifaat have ended up in temporary shelters and on the streets in Kurdish-controlled areas of Tabqa city (Hogir El Abdo/AP)

Syrian insurgents said on Thursday that they have entered parts of the central city of Hama after three days of intense clashes with government forces on its outskirts, part of an ongoing offensive in which they seized Syria’s largest city of Aleppo.

Syrian state media confirmed violent clashes between government forces and opposition gunmen on the eastern outskirts of Hama city but denied that the insurgents had breached it.