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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Organization of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria announced establishing its first official office inside Syria, following decades of crackdown and prohibition by the Syrian regime.

The Syrian Brotherhood's political bureau announced in a statement on Friday that the politburo president Hassan Hashemi inaugurated the Brotherhood's first office during his recent visit to Aleppo in northern Syria, DPA reported.

The opening of the office signals the first public move by the banned movement, which suffered severe blows and crackdowns by the Syrian regime, culminating in the 1982 Hama massacre, which left tens of thousand dead when late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad combatted the Islamist movement, assassinated and imprisoned its leaderships and members.

"The opening of the first office of the Muslim Brotherhood inside Syria is a great challenge in the face of Assad's regime, and a step that stresses the Muslim Brotherhood's determination for a public return and to found, along with all other Syrian groups, a new political life in the country," a statement issued by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood said.

The statement noted that the opening of the office in Aleppo, a stronghold of Syrian opposition forces, comes to reinforce the political, military, and civil paths, and to coordinate between them, in an effort to expedite the fall of the Syrian regime, according to the statement.

The unprecedented move on behalf of the Syrian Brotherhood signals a challenge to the Syrian regime, whose laws prohibit the movement and any affiliation with it.