Syrians on Wednesday marked the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Hama massacre, paying tribute to the tens of thousands of civilians killed by the regime. Up to 40,000 Syrian civilians were killed during the massacre after resistance to the regime of Hafez al-Assad, the father of current President Bashar al-Assad, grew and an Islamist insurgency targeted military and government figures, leading to a government military attack on the city. During the attack, Assad regime forces carried out a series of mass executions of men, women and children under the pretext that Muslim Brotherhood militants wer…