Timeline of the Syrian Civil War
2011
March 15 Dubbed the “day of rage” by activists, hundreds staged protests in Damascus and Aleppo, calling for democratic reforms, demanding for greater civil liberties and freedom for political prisoners after 40 years of brutal rule by the Assad family. Protests erupt in the city of Dara over security forces’ detention of a group of boys accused of painting antigoverment graffiti on the walls of their school. President Assad announces conciliatory measures, releasing dozens of political prisoners, dismissing government, lifting 48-year-old state of emergency.
18 Security forces open fire on a protest in Dara, killing four people in what activists regard as the first deaths of the uprising. Demonstrations spread, as does the crackdown by Assad’s forces.
00
2011
April Security forces raid a sit-in in Syria’s third-largest city, Homs, where thousands of people tried to create the mood of Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of protests against Egypt’s autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
01
2011
May Army tanks enter Deraa, Banyas, Homs and suburbs of Damascus in an effort to crush anti-regime protests. US and European Union tighten sanctions. President Assad announces amnesty for political prisoners.
02
2011
June The government says that 120 members of the security forces have been killed by “armed gangs” in the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour. Troops besiege the town and more than 10,000 people flee to Turkey. President Assad pledges to start a “national dialogue” on reform. Police and soldiers in Jisr al-Shughour in northeastern Syria join protesters they were ordered to shoot, and the uprising claims control of a town for the first time. Elite government troops, tanks and helicopters retake the town within days. The IAEA nuclear watchdog decides to report Syria to the UN Security Council over its alleged covert nuclear programme reactor programme. The structure housing the alleged reactor was destroyed by Isreal in an air raid in 2007.
03
2011
July President Assad sacks the governor of the northern province of Hama after mass demonstration there, eventually sending in troops to restore order at the cost of scores of lives.
04
2011
August President Obama calls on Assad to resign and orders Syrian government assets frozen.
05
2011
September
06
2011
October New Syrian National Council says it has forged a common front of internal and exiled opposition activists.
07
2011
November Arab League votes to suspend Syria, accusing it of failing to implement an Arab peace plan, and imposes sanctions.
08
2011
December Twin suicide bombs outside security buildings in Damascus kill 44, the first in a series of large blasts in the the capital that continue into the following summer.
09
2012
January
10
2012
February Government steps up the bombardment of Homs and other cities.
11
2012
March UN Security Council endorses non-binding peace plan drafted by UN envoy Kofi Annan. China and Russia agree to support the plan after an earlier, tougher draft is modified.
12
2012
April
13
2012
May France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Australia expel senior Syrian diplomats in protest at killing of more than a hundred civilians in Houla, near Homs.
14
2012
June Turkey changes rules of engagement after Syria shoots down a Turkish plane, declaring that if Syrian troops approach Turkey’s borders they will be seen as a military threat.
15
2012
July Free Syrian Army blows up three security chiefs in Damascus and seizes Aleppo in the north. A bombing at the Syrian national security building in Damascus during a high-level government crisis meeting kills four top officials, including Assad’s brother-in-law and the Minister of Defense.
16
2012
August Prime Minister Riad Hijab defects, President Obama warns that the use of chemical weapons would tilt the United States towards intervention. Kofi Annan quits as United Nations-Arab League envoy after his attempts to broker a ceasefire fail. Obama says the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a “red line� that would change his thinking about military action.
17
2012
September
18
2012
October Syria-Turkish tension rises when Syrian mortar fire on a Turkish border town kills five civilians. Turkey returns fire and intercepts a Syrian plane allegedly carrying arms from Russia. Fire in Aleppo destroys much of the historic market as fighting and bomb attacks continue in various cities.
19
2012
November National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces formed in Qatar, excludes Islamist militias. Arab League stops short of full recognition. Israeli military fire on Syrian artillery units after several months of occasional shelling from Syrian positions across the Golan Heights, the first such return of fire since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
20
2012
December US, Britain, France, Turkey and Gulf states formally recognise opposition National Coalition as “legitimate representative� of Syrian people.
21
2013
January Syria accuses Israeli jets of attacking a military research centre near Damascus, but denies reports that lorries carrying weapons bound for Lebanon were hit. Unverified reports say Israel had targeted an Iranian commander charged with moving weapons of mass destruction to Lebanon. International donors pledge more than $1.5bn (ÂŁ950m) to help civilians affected by the conflict in Syria.
22
2013
February
23
2013
March Syrian warplanes bomb the northern city of Raqqa after rebels seize control. US and Britain pledge non-military aid to rebels. Raqqa is a city of 500,000 people on the Euphrates River and the first major population center controlled by the opposition.
24
2013
April
25
2013
May
26
2013
June 5 The Syrian army recaptures the key border town of Qusayr, in an assault led by fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
27
2013
July Saudi-backed Ahmed Jarba becomes leader of opposition National Coalition, defeating Qatar-backed rival.
28
2013
August A chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs kills hundreds. Obama, blaming Assad’s government, says the U.S. has a responsibility to respond and puts it to a vote in Congress. Russia proposes instead that Syria give up its chemical weapons, averting military strikes.
29
2013
September Around a dozen rebel groups abandon the Syrian National Coalition and reject its calls for a civil, democratic government. Seven of them later form their own alliance, the Islamic Front, intended to eventually create a state governed by Islamic law. UN weapons inspectors conclude that chemical weapons were used in an attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus in August that killed about 300 people, but do not explicitly allocate responsibility.
30
2013
October President Assad allows international inspectors to begin destroying Syria’s chemical weapons on the basis of a US-Russian agreement. The number of Syrian refugees registered with the U.N. tops 2 million.
31
2013
November
32
2013
December US and Britain suspend “non-lethal� support for rebels in northern Syria after reports that Islamist rebels seized bases of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
33
2014
January Infighting among rebels spreads, pitting a variety of Islamic groups and moderate factions against the Al Qaeda-breakaway group Islamic State.
34
2014
February Two rounds of peace talks led by U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi in Geneva fail, largely because Syrian authorities refuse to discuss a transitional government.
35
2014
March Syrian Army and Hezbollah forces recapture Yabroud, the last rebel stronghold near the Lebanese border.
36
2014
April
37
2014
May 9 Hundreds of rebels are evacuated from their last stronghold in the central city of Homs. The withdrawal marks the end of three years of resistance in the city.
13 Lakhdar Brahimi resigns as U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, marking a second failure by the United Nations and Arab League to end the civil war.
38
2014
June UN announces removal of Syria’s chemical weapons material complete. Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants declare “caliphate” in territory from Aleppo to eastern Iraqi province of Diyala. Islamic State seizes large parts of northern and western Iraq. In control of around a third of Syria and Iraq, it declares a self-styled Islamic caliphate.
3 Syrians in government areas vote in presidential elections. Assad, one of three candidates, overwhelmingly wins with 88.7%.
39
2014
July 3 Islamic State takes control of Syria’s largest oil field, Omar, after fierce battles with Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.
40
2014
August Tabqa airbase, near the northern city of Raqqa, falls to Islamic State militants, who now control all of Raqqa province
19 Islamic State militants release video of the beheading of American journalist James Foley, the first of five Westerners to be beheaded.
41
2014
September 23 US and five Arab countries launch airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria around Aleppo and Raqqa.
42
2014
October
43
2014
November
44
2014
December
45
2015
January Kurdish forces push Islamic State out of Kobane on Turkish border after four months of fighting. The U.N. estimates Syria’s civil war has killed at least 220,000 people and uprooted nearly a third of the prewar population of 23 million from their homes and lands.
26 With the help of U.S.-led airstrikes, Kurdish fighters take control of Kobani.
46
2015
February 3 Islamic State releases a video of captured Jordanian pilot Lt. Moaz Kasasbeh being burned to death in a cage.
6 IS claims a Jordanian airstrike kills American hostage Kayla Jean Mueller. She was taken in 2013 while working with Doctor’s Without Borders in Aleppo, Syria. US officials later confirm her death, but say it wasn’t caused by a Jordanian airstrike.
25-28 IS overruns several Christian villages in Syria’s eastern Hassakeh province, taking at least 220 Assyrian Christians hostage.
47
2015
March Opposition offensives push back government forces. New Jaish al-Fatah (Army of Conquest) Islamist rebel alliance, backed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, captures provincial capital of Idlib.
28 The northwestern city of Idlib falls to Islamist groups led by Al Nusra Front.
48
2015
April
49
2015
May Islamic State fighters seize the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria and proceed to destroy many monuments at pre-Islamic World Heritage site. Jaish al-Fatah takes control of Idlib Province, putting pressure on government’s coastal stronghold of Latakia.
50
2015
June Kurds take Ain Issa and border town of Tal Abyad, Islamic State attacks Kobane and seizes part of Hassakeh, the main city in north-eastern Syria.
51
2015
July
52
2015
August
53
2015
September Russia carries out its first airstrikes in Syria, saying they target the Islamic State group, but the West and Syrian opposition say it overwhelmingly targets anti-Assad rebels.
54
2015
October
05 55
2015
November Seventeen nations meeting in Vienna adopt a timeline for a transition plan in Syria that includes a new constitution as well as UN-administered parliamentary and presidential elections within 18 months.
56
2015
December Britain joins US-led bombing raids against Islamic State in wake of Paris suicide bombing attacks. Syrian Army allows rebels to evacuate remaining area of Homs, returning Syria’s third-largest city to government control after four years.
18 The U.N. Security Council adopts Resolution 2254 endorsing the Vienna road map for a transitional period in Syria.
57
2016
January
58
2016
February 3 Indirect peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Geneva collapse a few days after starting, over a Russian-backed Syrian army offensive in Aleppo.
22 The U.S. and Russia announce a partial cease-fire in Syria will start February 27.
59
2016
March Syrian government forces retake Palmyra from Islamic State, with Russian air assistance.
9 The U.N.’s Syria envoy says indirect peace talks will resume in Geneva on March 14.
14 Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that his armed forces will begin withdrawing from Syria.
60
2016
April
61
2016
May
62
2016
June
63
2016
July
64
2016
August Turkish troops cross into Syria to help rebel groups push back so-called Islamic State militants and Kurdish-led rebels from a section of the two countries’ border.
65
2016
September The UN suspends all aid convoys after an airstrike on its lorries kills 20 civilians near Aleppo, Syria.
66