Anadan () is a city in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, 12 kilometers north of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, located on the Aleppo–

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

international road. It is in the

Mount Simeon District Mount Simeon District () is a Districts of Syria, district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Aleppo. Until December 2008, the sub-district of Atarib District, Atāreb was part of Mount Simeon Distri ...

of the

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' ) is one of the fourteen Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the t ...

. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Anadan had a population of 11,918 in the 2004 census.General Census of Population and Housing 2004
Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Aleppo Governorate. The town is known for its agriculture produce, such as grain, legumes, olives and different types of fruit. The city of Anadan is built on a hill surrounded by a plain. Anadan currently has about thirteen mosques and several elementary schools, a junior high school and a high school for boys and girls. During the

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...

period, in the 1220s, Anadan was visited by Syrian geographer

Yaqut al-Hamawi Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...

who noted it was "a village near Kinnasrin, in the Kurah district of Urtik, of the Awasim Province." The 13th-century ''Marasid'' listed it as a village northeast of Aleppo.

Syrian civil war

The Battle of Anadan occurred in Anadan from July 29–30, 2012, during the Syrian civil war. It has been the site of heavy shelling by the Syrian military during the uprising against President

Bashar al-Assad Bashar al-Assad (born 11September 1965) is a Syrian politician, military officer and former dictator Sources characterising Assad as a dictator: who served as the president of Syria from 2000 until fall of the Assad regime, his government ...

's government. Consequently, approximately 30,000 people—most of Anadan's population—have fled according to opposition sources. As a result, Anadan has been described as a "ghost town" by journalist Suleiman al-Khalidi of ''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

released satellite images which show that Anadan has come under heavy artillery bombardment during the uprising. On 24 January 2017,

Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra or Jabhat Nusrat Ahl al-Sham, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, and also later known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was a Salafi-jihadist organization that fought against Ba'athist regime forces ...

captured the town from

Ahrar al-Sham Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyya (), commonly referred to as Ahrar al-Sham, was a coalition of multiple Sunni Islamist units that coalesced into a single brigade and later a division in order to fight against the Syrian Government led by Bas ...

militants. On 16 February 2020, the city was recaptured by the

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF; ) were the combined armed forces of Syria from 1963 to 2024. They served during the rule of the Ba'ath Party in Syria. The SAAF consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air D ...

. During the

Northwestern Syria offensive (2024) On 27 November 2024, a coalition of Syrian revolutionary factions called the Military Operations Command led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported by allied Turkish-backed groups in the Syrian National Army (SNA) launched an offensive ...

, Syrian opposition militants captured Anadan.

References

{{Aleppo Governorate, simeon Populated places in Mount Simeon District