Protests began in Syria as early as 26 January 2011, and erupted on 15 March 2011 with a "Day of Rage" protest generally considered to mark the start of a nationwide uprising. [1] The Syrian government's reaction to the protests became violent on 16 March, and deadly on 18 March, when four unarmed protesters were killed in Daraa. [2]
For the background of those protests, see: Background of the Syrian protests (2011).
By the end of March, the old neighbourhood al-Balad in Daraa with 15,000 residents (see 16 March) was locked and surrounded by the Syrian Army. [30] When their supplies ran out in April–May the residents of al-Balad were facing famine. [30] By early April, whole Daraa was surrounded by automatic weapons, surface-to-air missiles and tanks, [30] and largely sealed off by the military. [180]
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Between 25 April and 16 May 2011, the Syrian army attacked and occupied Daraa, since 18 March the most ardent centre of the Syrian protests. The army reportedly deployed 20 or 30 tanks, between hundreds and 6,000 troops, snipers on roofs, and helicopters with paratroopers for the final conquest of the focal Omari Mosque on Saturday 30 April. Presumably 244 civilians and 81 soldiers were killed; houses were reportedly searched to arrest protesters, houses were shelled; almost 1,000 men have reportedly been rounded up. "They want to teach Syria a lesson by teaching Daraa a lesson", a resident commented. There were rumours of soldiers, or an entire army division, having defected, and joined the protesters; these reports have not been independently verified. The government claimed it was battling "terrorist groups" in Daraa. After withdrawal of part of the troops from Daraa on 5 May, army units remained deployed at the city's entrances.
A video taken allegedly shows the dead bodies of protesters from Daraa wrapped in burial cloth and gathered and stored in a refrigerated room, as the people of Daraa are unable to burial them due to the military and sniper presence. [297]
Douma, a working-class suburb of capital Damascus that had also assumed a vital role in the Syrian protests (see reports 1, 3, 10, 15, 16, 22 and 23 April) was raided and blockaded by army and security forces for at least several days, end of April 2011.
The consecutive Timeline-article on these Syrian protests and uprising (by July 2012 considered to have escalated into civil war) is: Timeline of the Syrian Civil War (May–August 2011)
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from May to August 2011, including the escalation of violence in many Syrian cities.
On 7 May 2011, during the Syrian revolution, the Syrian military launched an operation in the Syrian city of Baniyas. The government said it was targeting terrorist groups, while the Syrian opposition called it a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. The operation lasted until 14 May 2011.
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.
On 13 August 2011, during the early insurgency phase of the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Army and Syrian Navy launched an operation in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia in order to end an anti-Assad rebellion in the Palestinian camp. The operation resulted in dozens of people killed and wounded. Latakia has remained relatively quiet throughout the Syrian civil war subsequent to the operation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The 4th Armoured Division is an elite formation of the Syrian Army whose primary purpose is to defend the Syrian government from internal and external threats. The division is considered one of the most combat-ready formations of the Syrian Arab Army. It played a key role in some battles of the Syrian Civil War.
This article details the Syrian government's response to protests and civilian uprisings of the Syrian revolution which began in early 2011, that unravelled the socio-political stability of Syria, eventually plunging the country into a nationwide civil war by mid-2012.
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.
The siege of Daraa occurred within the context of the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria, in which Daraa was the center of unrest. On 25 April 2011, the Syrian Army began a ten-day siege of the city, an operation that helped escalate the uprising into an armed rebellion and subsequent civil war.
The Syrian revolution, also known as the Syrian Revolution of Dignity, was a series of mass protests and uprisings in Syria – with a subsequent violent reaction by the Syrian Arab Republic – lasting from March 2011 to June 2012, as part of the wider Arab Spring in the Arab world. The revolution, which demanded the end of the decades-long Assad family rule, began as minor demonstrations during January 2011 and transformed into large nation-wide protests in March. The uprising was marked by mass protests against the Ba'athist dictatorship of president Bashar al-Assad meeting police and military violence, massive arrests and a brutal crackdown, resulting in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands wounded.
On Friday 6 May 2011, during the 2011 Syrian uprising or civil war, Syrian government armed forces with tanks and troops started an attack on and occupation of Homs, Syria's third largest city with 650,000 inhabitants. Until 12 May they reportedly killed 37 residents and cut off water and medical care, held house-to-house raids to arrest hundreds of residents and shelled the town. On 13, 20, 21, 27 and 29 May, again 21 protesters reportedly were killed by security forces. At least 13 soldiers or policemen were killed in May by terrorist groups, the government reported.
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.
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.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2021. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war for 2022. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found in Casualties of the Syrian civil war.
On 17 August 2023, popular protests driven by escalating economic hardships erupted in the Druze majority city of As-Suwayda, initially drawing hundreds of participants. These protests, which quickly expanded in scope and intensity, saw thousands by 20 August chanting slogans demanding the downfall of the authoritarian Assad government, invoking memories of the Arab Spring. By 24 August, the protests had spread to the city of Daraa.
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has generic name (help)[ non-primary source needed ]Syrian authorities have detained two Americans amid an unprecedented wave of protests in the repressive Middle East nation, relatives and state media said Saturday.
Two Reuters television journalists have been missing in Syria since Saturday night, when they were due to return to Lebanon.
International news agency Reuters says two of its journalists detained by Syrian authorities have been released. Reuters said Monday its television producer Ayat Basma and cameraman Ezzat Baltaji, both Lebanese nationals, have returned to Lebanon. It says they were detained by Syrian authorities on Saturday.
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has generic name (help)Syrian authorities freed Reuters photographer Khaled al-Hariri on Sunday, six days after detaining him as he arrived for work in Damascus last Monday. Hariri, 50, who has worked for Reuters for over 20 years in his native Syria, met colleagues in the capital after his release and told them he was well.
SYRIAN President Bashar Assad last night asked former agriculture minister Adel Safar to form a new government, as communications networks failed and residents in Douma prepared to bury the first of their dead.
In Syria security forces killed at least 10 people in the southern city of Deraa as uprising against President Bashar al-Assad flared in several towns, witnesses said.
They said security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse thousands of Syrians who were chanting freedom slogans, after assembling close to the mosque in the old quarter of the city near the border with Jordan.
In the early hours of Saturday, Syrian security forces used live ammunition to disperse a pro-democracy protest by hundreds of people in a Sunni district of Latakia, causing scores of injuries and possible deaths, residents said.
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