Early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war

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Early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war
Part of the Syrian revolution and the Syrian civil war
VOA Arrott - A View of Syria, Under Government Crackdown 01.jpg
Syrian Arab Army checkpoint in Douma, January 2012
Date29 July 2011 – 20 April 2012
Location
Syria, neighbouring countries
Result

UN-mediated truce:

  • General cease of hostilities in late April and early May
  • Cease-fire collapse and conflict escalation by June 2012
Belligerents

Flag of Syria.svg Syrian Arab Republic

Supported by:
Flag of Iran.svg  Iran
Flag of Russia.svg Russia [1]

Syrian revolution flag.svg  Syrian opposition

Flag of Fatah al-Islam.png Fatah al-Islam [5]
Flag of Jihad.svg Foreign mujahideen [6]

Supported by:
Flag of NATO.svg NATO [1]
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia [7]
Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar [7]
Flag of Turkey.svg Turkey [7]
Commanders and leaders

Flag of Syria.svg Bashar al-Assad
President of Syria
Flag of Syria.svg Adel Safar
Prime Minister of Syria
Flag of Syria.svg Dawoud Rajiha
Defense Minister
Flag of Syria.svg Fahed al-Jasem el-Freij
Chief Of Staff (Syrian Army)
Flag of Syria.svg Maher al-Assad
4th Division Commander
Flag of Syria.svg Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar
Interior Minister
Flag of Syria.svg Assef Shawkat
Deputy Defense Minister and Intelligence head

Contents

Flag of Syria.svg Walid Muallem
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister

Syrian revolution flag.svg Riad al-Asaad
Free Syrian Army commander
Syrian revolution flag.svg Mustafa Ahmed al-Sheikh
Higher Military Council head

Flag of Syria.svg Hussein Harmoush (POW)
Free Officers Movement commander, until August 2011
Strength
Syrian Army: ~60,000 [lower-alpha 1]
Security agencies and affiliated paramilitaries: ~200,000 [9]
Ba'ath Party militias: tens of thousands [10]
Shabiha: 5,000–10,000 [10] 		Syrian revolution flag.svg 60,000 [11]
Rebel claim
Casualties and losses
Flag of Syria.svg Syrian security forces:
3,770 (opposition sources)[ citation needed ]–3,857 (Ba'athist sources: 15 March 2011–21 June 2012) [12] soldiers and policemen killed		 Syrian revolution flag.svg Syrian rebels:
2,980 [13] –3,235 [14] fighters killed

Civilian casualties (including 1,800–2,154 civilians killed during civil uprising):

10,414[ citation needed ]–10,669[ citation needed ] killed overall (government claim)
15,200[ citation needed ]–16,163[ citation needed ] killed overall (opposition claims)
35,000 wounded overall [15]
(see Deaths below for other estimates on killed)
240,000 displaced (including 180,000 refugees)

The early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war lasted from late July 2011 to April 2012, and was associated with the rise of armed oppositional militias across Syria and the beginning of armed rebellion against the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic. Though armed insurrection incidents began as early as June 2011 when rebels killed 120–140 Syrian security personnel, the beginning of organized insurgency is typically marked by the formation of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on 29 July 2011, when a group of defected officers declared the establishment of the first organized oppositional military force. Composed of defected Syrian Armed Forces personnel, the rebel army aimed to remove Bashar al-Assad and his government from power.

This period of the war saw the initial civil uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as armed elements became better organized and began carrying out successful attacks in retaliation for the crackdown by the Syrian government on demonstrators and defectors. [16]

The Arab League monitoring mission, initiated in December 2011, ended in failure by February 2012, as Syrian Ba'athist troops and oppositional militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian Ba'athist government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged oppositional strongholds.

In early 2012, Kofi Annan acted as the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria. His peace plan provided for a ceasefire, but even as the negotiations for it were being conducted, the rebels and the Syrian army continued fighting even after the peace plan. [17] : 11  The United Nations-backed ceasefire was brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan and declared in mid-April 2012.

Background

The civil uprising phase of the Syrian civil war was an early stage of protests – with subsequent violent reaction by the Syrian Arab Republic authorities – lasting from March to 28 July 2011. The uprising, initially demanding democratic reforms, evolved from initially minor protests, beginning as early as January 2011 and transformed into massive protests in March.

The uprising was marked by massive anti-government opposition demonstrations against the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad, meeting with police and military violence, massive arrests and brutal crackdown, resulting in hundreds of casualties and thousands of wounded.

Despite Bashar al-Assad's attempts to pacify the protests with massive crackdown and use of censorship on one hand and concessions on the other, by the end of April, it became clear the situation was getting out of his control and the Syrian government deployed numerous troops on the ground.

The civil uprising phase created the platform for emergence of militant opposition movements and massive defections from the Syrian Army, which gradually transformed the conflict from a civil uprising to an armed rebellion, and later a full-scale civil war. The rebel Free Syrian Army was created on 29 July 2011, marking the transition into armed insurgency.

Insurgency timeline

During the June 2011 Jisr ash-Shugur operation, the Syrian army claimed to have begun a crackdown on terrorists between 4 and 12 June, which left 120–140 security personnel dead. [18] [19] [20] [21]

Formation of FSA (July–November 2011)

On 29 July 2011, seven defecting Syrian Armed Forces officers formed the Free Syrian Army (FSA), originally composed of defected Syrian military officers and soldiers, aiming "to bring this government (the Assad government) down" with united opposition forces. [22] [23] On 31 July, a nationwide crackdown nicknamed the "Ramadan Massacre" resulted in the death of at least 142 people and hundreds of injuries. [24] On 23 August, a coalition of anti-government groups called the Syrian National Council was formed. The council, based in Turkey, attempted to organize the opposition. The opposition, however, including the FSA, remained a fractious collection of political groups, longtime exiles, grassroots organizers and armed militants divided along ideological, ethnic and/or sectarian lines. [25]

Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, founder of the Free Officers Movement of Syria. Harmoush was captured by government forces in August 2011, detained at Sednaya Prison and probably executed. Hussein Harmoush.png
Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, founder of the Free Officers Movement of Syria. Harmoush was captured by government forces in August 2011, detained at Sednaya Prison and probably executed.

Throughout August 2011, government forces stormed major urban centres and outlying regions, and continued to attack protests. On 14 August, the Siege of Latakia continued as the Syrian Navy became involved in the military crackdown for the first time. Gunboats fired heavy machine guns at waterfront districts in Latakia, as ground troops and security agents backed by armour stormed several neighbourhoods. [28] The Eid ul-Fitr celebrations, which began at the end of August, were muted after security forces fired on protesters gathered in Homs, Daraa, and the suburbs of Damascus. [29]

By September 2011, Syrian rebels were engaged in an active insurgency campaign in many parts of Syria. A major confrontation between the FSA and the Syrian Armed Forces occurred in Al-Rastan. From 27 September to 1 October, Syrian government forces, backed by tanks and helicopters, led an offensive on the town of Al-Rastan in Homs Governorate, in order to drive out army defectors. [30] The 2011 Battle of Rastan between government forces and the FSA was the longest and most intense action until that time. After a week, the FSA was forced to retreat from Rastan. [31] To avoid government forces, the leader of the FSA, Colonel Riad Asaad, retreated to Turkey. [32] Many of the rebels fled to the nearby city of Homs. [33]

By October 2011, the FSA started to receive active support from the Turkish government, which allowed the rebel army to operate its command and headquarters from the country's southern Hatay Province close to the Syrian border, and its field command from inside Syria. [34]

In October 2011, clashes between government and army units which had defected were being regularly reported. During the first week of the month, sustained clashes were reported in Jabal al-Zawiya in the mountains of Idlib Governorate. Syrian rebels also captured most of Idlib city. [35] In mid-October, clashes in Idlib Governorate included the towns of Binnish and Hass in the governorate near the mountain range of Jabal al-Zawiya. [36] [37] In late October, clashes occurred in the northwestern town of Maarrat al-Nu'man between government forces and defected soldiers, and near the Turkish border, where 10 security agents and a deserter were killed in a bus ambush. [38] It was not clear if the defectors linked to these incidents were connected to the FSA. [39]

According to defectors, in 2011 the Syrian government intentionally released imprisoned Islamist militants and provided them with arms "in order to make itself the least bad choice for the international community". [40] [41] On 19 October 2011 U.S. media reported that "large crowds of Syrians rallied in the northern city of Aleppo in support of the government of President Bashar al-Assad". The Syrian government estimated over a million pro-government demonstrators, while others estimated crowds at least "tens of thousands" comparable in size to a pro-government rally "a week earlier in Damascus". [42] [43]

Escalation (November 2011 – April 2012)

Situation in Syria, mid-March 2012 Syrian Civil War map (March 15 2012).svg
Situation in Syria, mid-March 2012

In early November 2011, clashes between the FSA and security forces in Homs escalated as the siege continued. After six days of bombardment, the Syrian Army stormed the city on 8 November, leading to heavy street fighting in several neighborhoods. Resistance in Homs was significantly greater than that seen in other towns and cities, and some in opposition have referred to the city as the "Capital of the Revolution". Unlike events in Deraa and Hama, operations in Homs failed to quell the unrest. [33]

November and December 2011 saw increasing rebel attacks, as opposition forces grew in number. In the two months, the FSA launched deadly attacks on an air force intelligence complex in the Damascus suburb of Harasta, the Ba'ath Syrian Regional Branch youth headquarters in Idlib Governorate and Damascus, an airbase in Homs Governorate, and an intelligence building in Idlib. [44] On 15 December, opposition fighters ambushed checkpoints and military bases around Daraa, killing 27 soldiers, in one of the largest attacks yet on security forces. [45] The opposition suffered a major setback on 19 December, when a failed defection in Idlib Governorate led to 72 defectors killed. [46]

The funeral procession of Syrian General Mohammed al-Awwad who was assassinated in Damascus in January 2012 VOA Arrott - A View of Syria, Under Government Crackdown 03.jpg
The funeral procession of Syrian General Mohammed al-Awwad who was assassinated in Damascus in January 2012

In January 2012, Assad began using large-scale artillery operations against the insurgency, which led to the destruction of many civilian homes due to indiscriminate shelling. [47] [48] By this time, daily protests had dwindled, eclipsed by the spread of armed conflict. [49] January saw intensified clashes around the suburbs of Damascus, with Syrian Army use of tanks and artillery becoming common. Fighting in Zabadani began on 7 January when the Syrian Army stormed the town in an attempt to root out the FSA presence. After the first phase of the battle ended with a ceasefire on 18 January, leaving the FSA in control of the town, [50] the FSA launched an offensive into nearby Douma. [51] Fighting in the town lasted from 21 to 30 January, before the rebels were forced to retreat as result of a government counteroffensive. Although the Syrian Army managed to retake most of the suburbs, sporadic fighting continued. [52] Fighting erupted in Rastan again on 29 January, when dozens of soldiers manning the town's checkpoints defected and began opening fire on troops loyal to the government. Opposition forces gained complete control of the town and surrounding suburbs on 5 February. [53]

Protest against the Assad regime in the city of Homs, 3 February 2012 Bab Dreeb Demonstration, Homs.jpg
Protest against the Assad regime in the city of Homs, 3 February 2012

On 3 February, the Syrian Army launched a major offensive in Homs to retake rebel-held neighborhoods. In early March, after weeks of artillery bombardments and heavy street fighting, the Syrian Army eventually captured the district of Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold. By the end of March, the Syrian Army retook control of half a dozen districts, leaving them in control of 70 percent of the city. [54] By 14 March, Syrian troops successfully ousted insurgents from the city of Idlib after days of fighting. [55] By early April, the estimated death toll of the conflict, according to activists, reached 10,000. [56] In April 2012, Assad forces began employing attack helicopters against rebel forces. [47]

In early 2012, Kofi Annan acted as the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria. His peace plan provided for a ceasefire, but even as the negotiations for it were being conducted, the rebels and the Syrian army continued fighting even after the peace plan. [17] : 11 

Aftermath

The United Nations-backed ceasefire was brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan and declared in mid-April 2012, but eventually met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting. By early June 2012, the civil war entered its most violent phase, with fighting spreading all across the country and fatalities mounting in unprecedented numbers. Incommunicado detention, including of children, also continued. [57]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Though the Syrian Army officially comprised around 220,000 soldiers at the start of the insurgency, including active and reserve personnel, more than half of these troops either defected to the insurgents or refused to answer calls of mobilization. As result, the army was limited to about 60,000 men in 2011. [8]

Related Research Articles

The siege of Rastan and Talbiseh was an operation by the Syrian Army during the Syrian revolution. On 28 May 2011, after protests and an armed revolt, the Syrian Army launched an operation in al-Rastan, a city of an estimated 50,000 residents located 20 kilometers north of Homs, and the neighboring town of Talbiseh, which resulted in the suppression of the protests and numerous deaths. The Syrian Army met some armed opposition during the siege.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Syrian Army</span> Opposition faction in the Syrian Civil War

The Free Syrian Army is a big-tent coalition of decentralized Syrian opposition rebel groups in the Syrian civil war founded on 29 July 2011 by Colonel Riad al-Asaad and six officers who defected from the Syrian Armed Forces. The officers announced that the immediate priority of the Free Syrian Army was to safeguard the lives of protestors and civilians from the deadly crackdown by Bashar al-Assad's security apparatus; with the ultimate goal of accomplishing the objectives of the Syrian revolution, namely, the end to the decades-long reign of the ruling al-Assad family. In late 2011, the FSA was the main Syrian military defectors group. Initially a formal military organization at its founding, its original command structure dissipated by 2016, and the FSA identity has since been used by various Syrian opposition groups.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian uprising from September to December 2011. This period saw the uprising take on many of the characteristics of a civil war, according to several outside observers, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, as armed elements became better organized and began carrying out successful attacks in retaliation for the ongoing crackdown by the Syrian government on demonstrators and defectors.

Riad Mousa al-Asaad is a Syrian military officer and politician who is the founding leader of the Free Syrian Army. One of the prominent faces of the Syrian Civil War, he led the armed resistance to the Assad regime as commander-in-chief of FSA, during the early phase of the Syrian Civil War. Under Riad al-Asaad's command, FSA expanded into a paramilitary force of 75,000 guerillas and insurgents in March 2012; capable of ousting regime forces from Damascus. He currently serves as the Deputy Prime Minister for Military Affairs of the Syrian Salvation Government, a position he has held since 2 November 2017. He was a former Colonel in the Syrian Air Force who defected to the opposition in July 2011 and became the first Acting Commander-in-chief of the Free Syrian Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Homs</span> Siege in Syria

The siege of Homs was a military confrontation between the Syrian military and the Syrian opposition in the city of Homs, a major rebel stronghold during the Syrian Civil War. The siege lasted three years from May 2011 to May 2014, and ultimately resulted in an opposition withdrawal from the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daraa Governorate clashes (2011–2013)</span> Series of military confrontations in Syria

The 2011–2013 Daraa Governorate clashes are a series of military confrontations between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army in Daraa Governorate, Syria, which began in November 2011, after widescale protests and crackdown on protesters in Daraa had lasted since April 2011. The clashes had been ongoing as part of the Syrian civil war, until the U.N. brokered cease fire came into effect on 14 April 2012. Sporadic clashes continued since then, however.

The Rif Dimashq clashes were a series of unrests and armed clashes in and around Damascus, the capital of Syria, from November 2011 until a stalemate in March 2012. The violence was part of the wider early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war. Large pro-government and anti-government protests took place in the suburbs and center of Damascus, with the situation escalating when members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) started attacking military targets in November.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idlib Governorate clashes (September 2011 – March 2012)</span> Syrian conflict battles

The September 2011 – March 2012 Idlib Governorate clashes were the violent incidents that took place in Idlib Governorate, a province of Syria, from September 2011 and prior to the April 2012 Idlib Governorate Operation.

A battle for control of Rastan, a city of 60,000 residents in Homs Governorate, Syria, occurred from 27 September to 1 October 2011. In late September, there were reports of numerous Syrian Army defections in the area, following which the Free Syrian Army took control of Rastan. After a four-day battle, the city was retaken by the Syrian Army.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to April 2012, during which time the spate of protests that began in January 2011 lasted into another calendar year. An Arab League monitoring mission ended in failure as Syrian troops and anti-government militants continued to do battle across the country and the Syrian government prevented foreign observers from touring active battlefields, including besieged opposition strongholds. A United Nations-backed ceasefire brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan met a similar fate, with unarmed UN peacekeepers' movements tightly controlled by the government and fighting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Rastan (January–February 2012)</span>

A second battle between the Syrian Army and the Free Syrian Army for control of the city of Rastan took place from 29 January to 5 February 2012. Located in Homs Governorate, Rastan is a city of 60,000 residents. The FSA captured Rastan after days of intense fighting, according to residents and the opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Homs offensive</span> Military campaign in Homs, Syria

The 2012 Homs offensive was a Syrian Army offensive on the armed rebellion stronghold of Homs, within the scope of the Siege of Homs, beginning in early February 2012 and ending with the U.N. brokered cease fire on 14 April 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Idlib (2012)</span> Battle

The Battle of Idlib was fought in the city of Idlib, located in the north of Syria, starting on 10 March 2012. The battle took place in a province considered a stronghold of the armed opposition to the Syrian government and was fought in the wider context of the Syrian Army trying to retake several rebel strongholds. After three days of fighting, the Syrian Army recaptured the city.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2012. The majority of death tolls reported for each day comes from the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition activist group based in Syria, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, another opposition group based in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Wadi Deif (2012–2013)</span> Siege of two Syrian Army bases

The siege of Wadi Deif refers to the siege of two Syrian Army bases, Wadi Deif and Hamadiyah, by rebel forces, starting on 11 October 2012, during the Idlib Governorate clashes of the Syrian civil war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idlib Governorate clashes (June 2012 – April 2013)</span> Part of the Syrian civil war

The June 2012–April 2013 Idlib Governorate clashes was a series of clashes within the scope of the Syrian civil war, that took place in Syria's Idlib Governorate. The events followed the April 2012 Idlib Governorate Operation by the Syrian government and consequent cease-fire attempt, which had lasted from 14 April to 2 June 2012.

The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.

The Khalid ibn al-Walid Brigade, originally called the Khalid ibn al-Walid Battalion, was a Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army which was active during the Syrian Civil War. The group was one of the first FSA-affiliated rebel groups to be formed in Syria. It operated in the Homs Governorate and participated in the Siege of Homs from 2011 to 2014, when it went defunct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012–2013 escalation of the Syrian civil war</span> Part of the Syrian Civil War

The 2012–2013 escalation of the Syrian Civil War refers to the third phase of the Syrian Civil War, which gradually escalated from a UN-mediated cease fire attempt during April–May 2012 and deteriorated into radical violence, escalating the conflict level to a full-fledged civil war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Northern Homs</span> 2010s siege by the Syrian government

The siege of Northern Homs was a siege lasting six years, by the Syrian government in the northern part of the Homs Governorate during the Syrian civil war, as a result of the rebel capture of Rastan and surrounding areas in 2012, the rebel-held pocket in northern Homs was fully taken by the Syrian government in 2018 after clearing opposition held areas around the capital.

References

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