Syria falls, Assad disappears, calls of ’God is great’ echoes from mosques: Timeline of 13-year-old Syrian civil war
- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left Damascus amid significant challenges to his rule, with opposition forces entering the capital. Protests erupted in Homs, celebrating perceived victories, while the ongoing civil conflict continues to escalate since it began in 2011.
Syria crisis: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad boarded a plane and left Damascus for an unknown destination on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters. The developments mark the biggest challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. Syrian Opposition said they began entering the capital Damascus without any sign of army deployments.
Thousands of Homs residents poured onto the streets after the army withdrew from the central city, dancing and chanting "Assad is gone, Homs is free" and "Long live Syria and down with Bashar al-Assad". Calls of “God is great” rang out from mosques
Timeline of 13-year-old Syrian civil war
March 2011 - The first big protests against Bashar al-Assad's rule that began in Deraa in southern Syria spread across the country. Security forces responded with arrests and shootings. On March 6, Syrian police had arrested abuse a group of teenagers for writing anti-graffiti criticising President Bashar Al Assad.
June 2012 - World powers meet in Geneva and agree on the need for a political transition, but divisions on how to achieve it will foil years of UN-sponsored peace efforts.
July 2012 - Assad launches air raids on towns and cities that had rebelled against his rule, as once peaceful protesters now carry arms. Thousands are killed.
August 2011: According to National News report, the UN estimated that over 2,200 people were killed by Syrian security forces during the first five months of the conflict.
March 2012: As per reports, Syria agreed to a UN-backed peace plan, which included pulling back heavy weapons and troops from civilian areas, implementing daily pauses in fighting for humanitarian aid, and releasing prisoners detained during the uprising.
August 2012: The UN ends its monitoring mission in Syria following the collapse of the peace plan, as per the National News report.
August 2013 - Washington declared the use of chemical weapons a red line, but a gas attack on densely populated rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus which killed hundreds of civilians without triggering a US military response.
January 2014 - An al Qaeda splinter group seizes Raqqa before grabbing territory across Syria and Iraq, declaring a caliphate and renaming itself Islamic State.
September 2014 - Washington builds an anti-Islamic State coalition and starts air strikes, helping Kurdish forces turn the jihadist tide but creating friction with ally Turkey.
March 2015 - As Assad's forces lose ground in many towns and cities that rose up against his one-party Baath rule, a mainstream armed insurgency composed of former demonstrators and army defectors is slowly undermined by Islamist militants helped by foreign jihadists coming to Syria.
September 2015 - Russia joined the war on Assad's side, deploying warplanes and giving military aid.
December 2016 - The Syrian army, with the help of its allies, successfully defeated the rebels in Aleppo after a long period of siege and heavy bombing.
March 2017 - Israel acknowledged launching air strikes against Hezbollah in Syria, aiming to degrade the strength of Iran whose elite Quds forces and Shi'ite militias from Afghanistan and Lebanon steadily expand their influence in Syria.
April 2017 - The United States launched its first cruise missile strike on a Syrian government airbase near Homs in response to a poison gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.
November 2017 - US-backed, Kurdish-led forces defeat Islamic State in Raqqa.
April 2018 - After months of blockade and airstrikes, the Russian-backed Syrian army reclaimed Eastern Ghouta. It then recaptured other rebel-held areas in central Syria, followed by the southern stronghold of Deraa in June.
September 2018 - A Russian-Turkish deal over Idlib and the rebel-held northwest freezes the frontlines and reduces the bombing raids that killed hundreds of civilians in the last major opposition bastion.
March 2019 - The United States decided to keep some troops in Syria after earlier saying that it would pull out.
April-December 2019 - The Russian-backed forces launched a campaign in the northwest that ended with the capture of a strategic rebel town of Khan Sheikhoun in August.
December 2019 - March 2020 - The Russian-led offensive in northwest Syria displaced about one million civilians, marking the worst humanitarian crisis since the conflict began. Ankara sent thousands of soldiers across the border to help stem the offensive.
February 2020: Turkey said it would not stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe and opened its borders. Thousands then flee for Greece.
March 2020 - Turkey and Russia agreed a ceasefire for Idlib and vowed to hold joint patrols and establish a secure corridor near the M4 highway.
March-August 2020 - Syria struggled with widespread transmission of COVID-19 that added to the country's hardships.
May 2020 - The first public signs of a fallout between President Assad and his cousin, tycoon Rami Makhlouf, appear when Makhlouf posts videos on social media addressing their rift. In the video, Makhlouf had lashed out against Assad’s “inhumane” state security forces and said “Mr President, the security forces have started attacking people’s freedoms.”
June 2020 - The United States announced toughest US sanctions against Damascus known as the "Caesar Act".
February 2021 - The Biden administration launched an airstrike in eastern Syria, near the Iraqi border, targeting a building it claimed was linked to Iran-backed militias.
May 2021 - Bashar al-Assad was re-elected for a fourth term as president of Syria, receiving 95.1 percent votes.
October 2024: The US military said it had conducted a series of airstrikes against multiple camps in Syria belonging to the Islamic State group on Friday. Battle damage assessments remain underway and officials have confirmed that there were no civilian casualties.
December 1: Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led rebels seized control of large parts of Aleppo, one of Syria’s largest cities, after a surprise offensive this week. The rebels also claimed control of the city’s international airport. According to reports, the Syrian rebels later advanced south, towards the central city of Hama.
December 5: Syrian rebels captured the city of Hama on Thursday, a major victory in a week-old lightning advance across northern Syria and a devastating new blow to President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies.
December 6: Thousands of people fled the central Syrian city of Homs overnight and into December 6 morning, a war monitoring group and residents said, as rebel forces sought to push their lightning offensive against government forces further south.
December 7: The Indian government warned its citizens against travel to the country until further notice. This warning comes in light of the situation prevailing in Syria, posing a significant risk to travellers.
December 7: Syrian government forces lost control of Daraa city, a key location in the uprising against President Assad. This marks the fourth city lost in a week, with rebels celebrating the capture as tensions escalate in the ongoing conflict.
December 8: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Sunday that President Bashar al-Assad had left of the country, after losing swathes of territory to a lightning rebel offensive.
December 8: Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said in a video statement that the government is ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.
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Business NewsNewsSyria falls, Assad disappears, calls of ’God is great’ echoes from mosques: Timeline of 13-year-old Syrian civil war
First Published:8 Dec 2024, 09:23 AM IST
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