Hama, in an operation that led to more than 20 civilians killed by the Syrian security forces and two rape cases were witnessed. Chronology July 2011 As the city of Hama became one of the main opposition centers of the popular uprising taking place in Syria, Hama turned into a focal point of growing violence. An armed blockade was imposed on the city on 3 July. On 6 July, the US ambassador Robert Ford visited Hama and declared that he would stay until Friday, to the ire of the Syrian government. On 8 July, more than 500,000 Syrians flooded through the city of Hama in what activists claim was the single biggest protest yet against the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad. JJ Harder, the press attaché of the US embassy in Damascus, later told Al Jazeera: "Our ambassador Robert Ford was in Hama earlier this month, and he saw with his own eyes the violence that they are talking about. There was none. He maybe saw one teenager with a stick at a checkpoint, and the government is going on with these absolute fabrications about armed gangs running the streets of Hama and elsewhere. Hama has shown itself to be a model of peaceful protest. That was why our ambassador chose to go there." The French ambassador joined the U.S. ambassador to express his support to the victims. On 7 July, French and American ambassadors to Syria toured some of the nation’s conflict zones. The American ambassador Robert Ford, along with the French ambassador Éric Chevallier, traveled to the city of Hama in what Robert Ford claimed to be "a gesture of solidarity with local protesters". On 8 July, more tanks were deployed around the outskirts of Hama as part of a strengthening blockade, following protests involving an estimated 500,000 people the previous weekend. It is estimated that up to 350,000 of the city's 700,000 population took part in the protests Over 500,000 citizens had rallied in the city on 29 July, following Muslim prayers in which a pro-rebel cleric told the congregation "the regime must go". Local support for the government had imploded by 30 July in both Homs, Deir ez-Zor and Hama. President Assad sent his "Terror Buses" packed with private Alawite militia and party loyalists into Hama on 30 July. On the eve of Ramadan, Syria witnessed the bloodiest day in the 139-day uprising against the