The Syrian Republican Guard (SRG), also known as the Presidential Guard, was an elite 25,000 man praetorian guard unit in the Syrian Army prior to the fall of the Assad regime, and was reportedly at a corps size with around 60,000 guardsmen. It was composed of two mechanized divisions with its main purpose to protect the capital of Syria, Damascus, from any foreign or domestic threats. The Republican Guard was the only Syrian military unit allowed within the capital before the civil war. It was designed to defend the President as well as the major presidential and strategic institutions, including the presidential palaces.
Harasta, also known as Harasta al-Basal or Hirista, is a town and northeastern suburb of Damascus, Rif Dimashq, Syria. Harasta has an altitude of 702 meters. It has a population of 34,184 as of 2007, making it the 43rd largest city per geographical entity in Syria.
Douma is a city in Syria. Its centre is about 10 km (6 mi) northeast of the centre of Damascus. Being the capital of Rif Dimashq Governorate, the city is also the administrative centre of Douma District. Douma is a major city of the region known as Ghouta, for the peri-urban settlements to the east and south of Damascus.
Umayyad Square is a large and important square in Damascus, Syria. It connects the city center with several important highways and areas, and contains important buildings, including the Ministry of Defense, Syria's national Opera House and the headquarters of the Syrian Armed Forces.
Sabaa Bahrat Square is a large and important square in Damascus, Syria. Many important official buildings and ministries are located in the area including the Central Bank of Syria. Many important streets branch from there including Baghdad Street.
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 Battle of Zabadani took place in January through February 2012, during the Syrian civil war. During the initial stages of the battle, the rebel FSA took control of the town. However, less than a month later, the Army retook control of Zabadani, forcing rebel fighters to withdraw towards the Lebanese border.
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.
Syria was usually called Iran's "closest ally", until the fall of the Assad regime after the 2024 Syrian opposition offensives were completed on December 8th, 2024. Iran and Syria had a strategic alliance ever since the Iran–Iraq War, when Syria sided with non-Arab Iran against neighbouring Ba'ath-ruled Iraq. The two countries shared a common animosity towards then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and coordination against the United States and Israel.
The Battle of Damascus, also known as Operation Damascus Volcano, started on 15 July 2012 during the Syrian civil war. It is unclear who started the battle. Thousands of rebels infiltrated Damascus from the surrounding countryside. Following this, according to some reports, the opposition forces launched an operation to capture the capital, while according to other reports, the military learned of the large-scale rebel operation beforehand and made a preemptive strike. Some reports even suggested the rebels launched the operation prematurely due to their plans being discovered by the security forces.
Barzeh or Barza is a municipality and a neighborhood to the north of Damascus, Syria. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Barzeh had a population of 47,339 in the 2004 census.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war from September to December 2012. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Rif Dimashq offensive refers to a rebel offensive during the Syrian Civil War in the Rif Dimashq Governorate which started in November 2012, and a subsequent attempted Syrian Army counterattack in January 2013. Thomson Reuters described rebels as "ramping up attacks on Damascus" in late November and BBC News described the 29 November government counterattack as "an unprecedented offensive against rebel-held districts in the east of the city".
The Battle of Darayya was fought from the end of 2012 to the beginning of 2013 between the Syrian Army and the Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Darayya.
The Presidential Palace is the chief official residence of the President of Syria. It is located in the west of Damascus, on Mount Mezzeh, north of Mezzeh neighborhood, next to Mount Qasioun, and overlooks the city. The main building covers 31,500 square metres. The entire plateau of Mount Mezzeh is part of the palace compound and is surrounded by a security wall and guard watchtowers. In front of the building is a large fountain and the palace itself largely consists of empty rooms clad in Carrara marble.
The January 2013 Rif Dimashq airstrike was an aerial attack in the Rif Dimashq Governorate of Syria, which targeted a convoy alleged to be carrying weapons from Syria to the Lebanese Shi'a militia Hezbollah. The convoy was attacked on 31 January 2013. According to several media sources, Israeli forces allegedly conducted the strike; however, Israel has not officially responded to the allegations.
The Damascus offensive refers to a series of rebel operations that began in early February 2013 in and around the city of Damascus.
Dahiyat Harasta or Dahiyat al-Assad is a suburb in southern Syria, administratively part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, located northeast of Damascus, near Harasta in Eastern Ghouta.
On 7 December 2024, the Syrian opposition group known as the Southern Operations Room led forces that entered the Rif Dimashq region of Syria from the south, and those forces then came within 20 kilometres (12 mi) of the capital Damascus. The Syrian Army withdrew from multiple points in the outskirts. Concurrently with the advance towards Damascus, opposition militia Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army in the north launched an offensive into Homs, while the Syrian Free Army advanced into the capital from the southeast. By 8 December 2024, rebel forces entered the city's Barzeh neighborhood. According to official state reports in Russian mass media and media footage, President Bashar al-Assad left Damascus by air to Moscow, where he was granted asylum, sealing the fall of his regime.
The Muhajreen Palace in Damascus, Syria, also referred to as the Al-Muhajireen Palace, is a historically significant building located in the Muhajreen neighborhood on the slopes of Mount Qasioun. It served as the first presidential palace of Syria, and was subsequently used as an state guest house.
